As the Arne Duncan for Sec. of Ed. hype continues, Eduwonkette responds to Russo's gauntlet throw-down about the media's lack of attention to results in Chicago Public Schools. She takes a look at Chicago's NAEP results to see if gaps separating white/black and white/Hispanic students in Chicago shrunk in the last 5-6 years.
The answer? Nah!
There are no statistically significant declines in these gaps in 4th or 8th grade reading or math. In many cases - for example, 4th and 8th grade math and 8th grade reading - it's not that the black-white achievement gap is declining, but not by enough to be statistically significant. These gaps are actually growing. Sigh. Lucky for Duncan, Joel Klein doesn't have a leg up in this area - neither superintendent has been successful in narrowing racial achievement gaps. (See NYC achievement gap analyses in painful detail here.)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Agree? Disagree? Let me hear from you.