Utah’s Educational Gap Chris Park

Comparing The Numbers I decided to do some statistical comparisons for the 2012 Utah CRT test scores. I found and interesting comparison between 2 middle schools

West Side / East Side West Lake Junior High School Located: West Valley City, UT Enrollment(2012): 1143 Butler Middle School Located:Cottonwood Heights Enrollment(2012): 885

Enrollment Breakdown on Butler Middle  Predominately Caucasian  Less than 30% of students are considered Socio- Economic  Less Than 1% of African Americans and Native Americans.

Butler’s CRT Scores

Enrollment Breakdown on West Lake  Ethnic and Race Minorities make up the majority of West Lake students.  Less than a quarter of West Lake students are Caucasian  A little over 84% of West Lake students are considered Socio- Economic.

West Lake’s CRT Scores

Notable Differences o Butler Students avregage CRT scores were all over 70% Perficient. o Butler’s overall CRT average was higher than the rest of the state. o Butler is not a Title I school. o Only half of West Lake students had math proficiency scores. / Less than half had proficiency scores in science. o West Lake’s overall average was considerably less than the state average. o West Lake is Title I.

What Can Be Done? Considering West Lake is a Title I school (Which means it receives financial help from the Federal Government) throwing more money at the school might not be the best solution. Maybe more emphasis on helping West Lake’s surrounding community? Maybe more emphasis on helping students with learning English? (One-Third of West Lake students are English learners) Try to find all issues that are creating the learning barrier for West Lake students.

Something has to be done…  Ignoring any Political side, all students in Utah and the US should have equal learning opportunities.  Getting all students in Utah to have complete equal CRT scores is not possible, but having a gap as large as the one between Butler and West Lake should not be acceptable.  After all, helping struggling schools isn’t just for a better future for the students, it’s going to benefit all of society in the future as well.