The Achievement Gap and its Causes
The article discusses a study conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and primarily examines whether the achievement gap has changed over time. In particular, the study by NAEP places more emphasis on the educational achievement disparity between Blacks and Whites and how various factors have played a role from the 20th century to the present (Paul E. Barton, and Richard J. Coley).
The Role of Parental Characteristics
It's crucial to remember that closing the achievement gap can only be accomplished by addressing issues related to parent race, income, and educational level, as well as parent characteristics (s). Therefore, narrowing the achievement gap between Black and White students takes time, but it also necessitates taking proactive steps.
The Influence of Non-Cognitive Traits
Regarding the areas of emphasis that influence school achievement, the report looks at the non-cognitive traits related to learning by young students. They include motivation and work ethic, internalizing the problem behavior, self-control, interpersonal skills among others. The characteristics of the parent(s) play a significant role in determining the attributes that close the Black and White achievement gap (Paul E. Barton, and Richard J. Coley).
The Impact of Concentrated Poverty
Black children form a huge percentage of children categorized under areas of concentrated poverty. Thus, there is a high likelihood of successive generations growing up in such neighborhoods. For this matter, it contributes more to the problem.
Steps to Close the Achievement Gap
One of the steps taken to close the gap is ensuring that generations move out of poor neighborhoods to better ones. Therefore, engaging others to assist in offering assistance to children from pre-school will help give them the quality education. At a personal level, one needs to take the responsibility of gathering political will since already the social capital is available. Regarding the ideal civic infrastructure, there is a need to model neighborhoods through non-profit, public, and private efforts in a bid to get sufficient funding.
Work Cited
Paul E. Barton, and Richard J. Coley. An Excerpt From The Policy Information Report – From The Section: Adding It Up. 2010.
