Introduction
In Ohio alone, more than ten thousand of the students were not attaining the state’s academic standards. Findings indicated that a large number of children were completing schools before they could meet workplace demands or even those of postsecondary education.
Mostly affected were children who come from the low-income communities, students from Hispanic and African American families, those who are not native speakers of English, as well as disabled children (State Board of Education, 2003).
These are the achievement gaps that educators in the state noted, and of course the ones that led to the establishment of Ohio education task force that came up with various recommendations to address the gaps. Black and White students’ achievement gap is described as the average score difference between what the black students score and what their white peers manage (Vanneman et al., 2009).
Noteworthy among the Ohio affected group is the gap in achievement between Black and White Children. This gap is however well highlighted in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This report indicates the extent at which students from both Black and White cultural backgrounds perform in Mathematics and Reading assessment.
The scope of NAEP assessment includes students in the public schools, fourth and eighth grade in 50 states, District of Columbia as well as those in Department of Defense. It therefore reveals the achievement gaps between public students in each state and for the whole nation.
United States has recorded overall improvement in educational attainment from 1950 to 2005. In addition, achievements in education have also been recorded. For instance, in mathematics, highest scores for both grades 4 and 8 were recorded in 2007. Reading scores on the other hand have also registered an increase since 1990.
Despite both Blacks and White students registering average increase in both mathematics and reading, white students have been reported to have the best performance compared to their black peers. From a national perspective, the achievement gap between the Black and White is reported to have narrowed down in 2007 as compared to the same gap in 1990.
On the other hand, in reading, the gap in 2007 was narrower to what both 1992 and 2005 registered. Significant changes in achievement gaps were not seen in the previous years for reading though. What NAEP report indicates is that there is a considerable achievement gap between the two cultural background students in both mathematics and reading, and in grades 4 and 8 (Vanneman et al., 2009).
Some states however registered wider gaps than the national levels. However, this could also be because some of the states did not have equal numbers of the black or white students, or due to other study limitations.
From the NAEP report, we can deduce a number of facts concerning the extent of this achievement gap. First is the fact that these gaps have been narrowing at the national scale since the initial assessments. Second at the state level, there are a lot of disparities in achievement gaps for both mathematics and reading subjects.
Third, some significant gaps have been recorded between female students from both Black and White cultural backgrounds. On the other hand, students eligible for reduced-price lunch have also registered some significant narrowing of the gap. Generally, there has been an increased performance by black students compared to the white ones, which has narrowed the gap between the two groups.
Trend in the Black-White Achievement Gap for grade four students aged 9 years in mathematics
NAEP administers long-term trend assessments for ages 9 and 13 as opposed to assessing students in either grade 4 or 8. This assessment dates back to 1978 for mathematics and 1980 in reading. Children of 17 years are also included in this assessment. For this section though, I will stick with the 9 years group and concentrate on their average mathematics assessment scores.
Both white and black students registered their highest scores in 2004 than in any other preceding year that NAEP did its assessment. White students registered an average score of 247 points, while their Black peers had 225 points.
In the year, the gap between 9 years old Black – White students was recorded as 23 points (note there seem to be an error with this figure because if you calculate again the answer is 22 points) in Mathematics.
This was a smaller gap as compared to when NAEP carried its first assessment in 1978 for mathematics (Vanneman et al., 2009). The narrow gap has been associated with higher Black improvement in their average scores for the year as compared to the white students.
In the state level, statistics available for 46 states shows that the gaps for mathematics scored had decreased in 15 of them between 2007 and 1992. This decreased gap was as a result of Black students increasing their average scores between the periods as compared to their White colleagues. In addition to this, five states registered a higher mathematics gap in 2007, to the national 26 points gap.
On the other hand, another 10 states in the same period registered a smaller gap than this national figure. These states are Alaska, DoDEA, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia (Vanneman et al., 2009). From 1990 to 2007, students had increased their average score in mathematics in all states.
The gap though was on the decline as black student’s gains were higher than those of the White students. So at a glance, what these figures reveal is that to a great extent, the gap between these two cultural backgrounds and particularly in this age bracket has been decreasing.
In 2007, mathematics scores for grade four was reported to be highest than what the score was in 1990. In addition, looking at the graph reveals that there was a slight increase from the average scores registered in 2004 in the national level (Vanneman et al., 2009).
In this period, the Blacks continued to register a higher average score than the White students, which made the gap to narrow down from 31 points in 1990 to only 26 points in 2007. Looking at gender trends in average mathematics scores reveals another picture. From the graphs, both genders registered a high mathematic score in 2007 in grade four, compared to their performance in the subject in 1990.
In terms of the gap, females had a narrower one in 2007 because Black females had performed better than their White colleagues (Vanneman et al., 2009). The change was not as big with the male students from both White and Black societies.
Another criterion that is used to determine the cause of achievement gap by NAEP is the income level of the family. To determine whether a student comes from a well or poor family, NAEP considers the chance that a student qualifies to be given lunch for free or at a reduced price (Vanneman et al., 2009).
Regardless of the whether a student qualified for both types of lunch, in 2007, all students posted an average higher mathematical score than both 2005 and 2003 years. However, a significant reduction in achievement gap was registered between 2007 and 2003 for those students who get reduced-price lunch, in the fourth grade. In 2007, the gap was at 13 points compared to 2003 gap of 16 points (Vanneman et al., 2009).
From the first year in 1990 when NAEP conducted its first mathematics assessment, the long-term trends have described a positive curve. That is an increase in the average mathematics scores for all students regardless of their race. Year 2004 is reported to have registered the most significant increase in the average mathematics score for both Black and White students.
At the same time, we have also noted in these findings that the gap between the two cultural groups in grade four or age 9 had been declining over the period of these assessments. The reason for the decline we have noted has been due to a higher increase in the Black students’ average scores as compared to their peers’ performance.
This trend of Blacks improving their performance has been recorded with both decreasing gap of 2004 and that of 2007. This means that either the education strategies employed while dealing with blacks had changed or generally schools administrators and teachers had developed their understanding of cultural diversity, resulting in culturally proficient education management.
With this continued kind of trend, then I would argue that the gap for 2009 was narrower. This can be justified by the long term trends movement that indicate each year had been registering some form of reduced achievement gap. In addition, this cultural tolerance and achievement can also be noted in the improved performance of Black girls compared to the White peers in the same year of 2007.
Other efforts adopted in education to reduce disparities like use of free or reduced-price lunch also have contributed to some degree in the reduction of achievement gap.
Therefore, I think because the understanding among people about the need to have cultural diversity as well as to reduce segregation and increase equal opportunity for all have led to improved cultural proficiency, it is possible that by 2009 the gap had also narrowed as society became increasing aware of these cultural proficiency guiding principles.
Recommendation 9 in Section II and the Description of the Plan to Apply it in Narrowing the Gap in Mathematics for District of Columbia
Recommendations in section II are geared towards developing teachers and administrators cultural proficiency so as to ensure they teach all their students equally. This will be reflected on equality in the students learning.
Recommendation 9 particularly interests me because it proposes to change the standards for both teachers and administrators. Its aim is to transform their disposition, skills and knowledge necessary for their leadership to all students as they struggle to attain academic success (State Board of Education, 2003).
What this recommendation proposes is the development of role models or leaders in education institution. This is by training teachers and administrators to accept entitlement that will enable them to take responsibility in the continuum of cultural proficiency. This recommendation approaches the issue from both a transactional and transformational leadership perspective.
From a transactional perspective, it proposes the establishment of standard goals and expectations. This is by ensuring that teachers are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge that they need in order to help the students attain the education system goals.
Transformational leader perspective is inclined towards the intrinsic motivation, and through a focus on the final goal it appeals to the overall betterment of the student. This leadership oriented approach to improve teachers and administrator cultural proficiency is the plan that I propose to use in addressing the fourth graders Black – White gap.
From what we have seen in section II, given the opportunity and with improved instructions, Black students have the potential to improve significantly their mathematics scores. This is a fact that can be deduced from the long-term trend improvements of Black students’ performance, which is greater than the achievements made by their peers.
By extension, what recommendation 9 proposes is a change from the instructors’ perspective to realize increased improvement in the students who do not belong to the dominant culture.
This recommendation begins by proposing to equip the teachers and administrators with knowledge that would help them to realize why the minority group is not performing well. Then it goes on to suggest that once they have this awareness, they can be in a position to train both groups in a manner that ensures all students achieve the goals of education.
So my plan to improve the teachers and administrators will involve a number of things. First is to open these educators’ eyes to let them see the picture. That is to make them realize that by improving their awareness of cultural diversity and accepting to work with students who come from diverse cultural background, they can actually improve the students’ mathematics scores.
Once they have accepted to see this student’s multiculturalism as a positive thing, I propose to help them realize the various tools at their disposal to attain the vision of an equal instruction delivery that will help attain this goal. I will describe how this plan can be employed in improving grade 4’s mathematics score for the District of Columbia.
Teachers must therefore embrace the different ways of transformational leadership. Looking at District of Columbia statistics, grade 4 Black students achieved in 2007 an average score of 209 points, as compared to 262 average points for their White students colleagues. This made their gap to be between 54 points in mathematics (State Board of Education, 2003).
This can be because teachers do not pay adequate attention to the black students. Black students who come from low income families may not be having adequate learning materials. Schools segregation of Black students in the district can also be a factor, and economic disparities between these two groups.
From cultural proficiency approach, teachers and administrators need to come up with ways to close these differences in order to narrow the gap between these students.
Policies can therefore be developed for the state that forces teachers to do something about these gaps in line with recommendation 9. They must start by accepting that disparities exist between the two groups of students that continue to make one group benefit from these privileges, while the other is oppressed.
These policies need to be developed with all stakeholders’ involvement. By bringing teachers and administrator together, they will be able to chat ways that they can be able to use cultural competence elements to serve both groups of students.
For instance, they can set standards to ensure that both Black and White students have universal access to teachers’ assistance when any of the students has mathematics problem without favor or discrimination on color. Within these forums, teachers and administrators can be influenced to abandon traditional cultural beliefs. Teachers and administrator must make commitments to shift in the cultural continuum.
This is by abandoning behaviors that do not accept the multiculturalists’ nature of the schools today. In addition, they must be made to accept that the gap between different students can be closed if they begin to view students as equals and having the same potentials, if the playing field is leveled.
As a result, this will help them develop their own cultures in schools where both White and Black students are made to work harmoniously to improve their performances.
Once administrators accepts to develop a monoculture in their school that harnesses the advantages of diversity, instead of maximizing on the differences, educators can be able to now focus on each individual’s effort in making the learning environment conducive for the students.
Each teacher or administrator will therefore be looked upon as a part of a system as opposed to having them perform their duties in a disenfranchised manner. In the same manner, the differences in culture that are inherent in the students can also be recognized. For instance, Black students, who are scoring low marks in mathematics at the average of 209, may be having special needs that need to be redressed.
For example, the issues of income disparities that this group exhibit can be addressed by having them benefit from some of the education funds available. This cultural proficiency principle will help educators to focus the new values with their actions. They will respond to diversity as a source of information on areas that needs to be redressed in order stimulate Blacks student learning in mathematics.
References
Vanneman, A., Hamilton, L., Baldwin A. J., and Rahman, T. (2009). Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, (VANNEMAN ET AL 2009-455). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
State Board of Education. (2003). Toward High Achievement for all Students. Report of the State Board of Education Closing Achievement Gap Task Force, 1-35 Ohio, State Board of Education.