1. Closing the Achievement Gap
Andrew Porter
Vanderbilt University
August, 2006

2. Purposes Describe the achievement gap:
How big?
How stable over time?
How stable over age?
How important?
Analysis of reforms that might decrease the achievement gap

3. Reading Performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-Year-Olds
Age 9 Subset

4. Reading Performance of 9-Year-Olds

5. Changes in the Achievement Gap Between Black and White Students, 1971–1999
Reading
Mathematics
Science
Age
1971
1999
1973
1970 9 44 35 28 57 41 13 39 29 46 32 49 17 53 31 40 54 52
Note: Values represent Black-White differences in score points.

6. Participation Rates in Long-Term Trend NAEP, 1971–1999
Reading
Mathematics
Science
Age
1971
1999
1973
1970 9
84%
80%
85%
78% 13
74%
79%
73% 17
67%
59%
68%

7. How Important is the Achievement Gap?
The black/white achievement gap is approximately 1 sd for mathematics, a little higher for science, a little lower for reading
NAEP long-term trend data: the gap is about 0.6 to 0.8 of the difference between two adjacent performance levels (i.e., 50 points)

8. Issues in Describing the Achievement Gap
What contrasts define the gap (e.g., race/ethnicity, SES)?
When does the gap begin?
Does the gap increase while students are in school?
Is the gap a function of validity (e.g., test bias, performance assessment)?
Do changes in participation rates change over time?
Have definitions of contrasting groups changed over time?
Is the percentage of minority groups changing over time?

9. School Reform for Closing the Achievement Gap
Preschool reforms
Teacher reforms
Instructional reforms
Standards-based reform

10. Teacher Reforms Teacher achievement Teacher expectations
Black teachers teaching black students

11. Instructional Reforms
Instructional interventions
Reduced class size
Ability grouping and tracking
Promotion and retention policies

12. Conclusions The achievement gap remains large regardless of:
Groups contrasted
Ages of students
Academic content area
The gap narrowed during the 1970s and early 1980s, but has remained flat since

13. Conclusions Schooling is not the major cause of the achievement gap
The gap is already present and is substantial prior to schooling
During the K-12 years, the gap does not increase during the academic year

14. Conclusions
Promising reforms for reducing the gap share the ability to address inequalities in opportunity to learn
Teacher quality
Student course-taking patterns
Pre-school

15. Conclusions
The gap is smaller and more easily reduced in reading than in mathematics
The gap increases less with age for reading than for mathematics
Summer loss is greater in mathematics than in reading
Promotion and retention policies may reduce the achievement gap in reading but increase the gap in mathematics
Changing teacher expectations produces bigger effects in reading than in mathematics

16. Conclusions
The achievement gap is unlikely to be totally eliminated by school reform. Nevertheless, some education reforms do reduce the gap