Minority Achievement Gap

With a Focus on African Americans and Hispanics

Michael O. Cox

Global Connections

Instructor: Gregory L. Falls

December 8th, 2017

Abstract
 Throughout this paper I will be referring to several very reliable sources to thoroughly explain

with detail the minority achievement gap. As explained in the introduction the Minority

Achievement Gap is a problem that has dragged on for a very long period of time. The Minority

Achievement Gap is basically the difference in the performance in test scores, graduation rates,

and many other factors in the education field. The gap specifically focuses on African Americans

and Hispanics because statistics show that Asians exceed whites in some of these factors. All in

all, throughout this paper you will get a better understanding of the Minority Achievement Gap

by analyzing statistics and reading about various sources that are very informative to the topic.

Table of Contents

Abstract………………………………………………………………………...2
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………....3

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….4

Limitations of Study…………………………………………………………....5

Literature Review………………………………………………………………6

Discussion……………………………………………………………………....8

What is the Minority Achievement Gap?....................................8

What's a research paper without statistics?..................................9

The little difference that has been made……………………….10

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..12

References………………………………………………………………………13

Appendix A……………………………………………………………………..16

Appendix B……………………………………………………………………...17

Appendix C……………………………………………………………………...18
 Introduction

In today’s society the minority education gap is a very prominent issue that needs to be discussed

and solved immediately. The minority education gap is specifically the achievement gap between

the majority (whites) and the minorities (blacks and hispanics). Asian-Americans are also

considered minorities but they tend to excel in school so they are not included. There are several

reasons why this gap exists in the first place. This dates back all the way to the times of

segregation where schools were not integrated. Back then African Americans were not able to

get nearly the same amount of education as the whites simply because of race. Though schools

were segregated in 1954, there has been several efforts to try and decrease the minority education

gap. Unfortunately none of these have worked so far and the gap has barely narrowed within the

past 30 years. This is not good at all because if the gap is not even close then we simply will not

have any diversity whatsoever in our workplaces and that is not what we as a country want. As

of recently people have realized that this is a problem that needs to be solved and have decided to

pour lots of money into education in general. Also our classrooms have become more diverse

over the past couple years. Performance in the classroom throughout minorities will determine

the fate of diversity in our workplaces.

 Limitations of Study

There are many limitations to the minority education gap within communities. Many of these

limitations have to do with the social position that minorities are put in. Specifically, the social

position that African Americans and Hispanics are put in. For example, most of these families

are low- income families with some exceptions. With these families being low income students

might not have access to a computer at home. Nowadays in our schools, everything is technology

based so if you don't have access to technology then you simply are not able to do it. This has a

major impact on the gap as a whole for obvious reasons. These students parents might not be

able to help the children because they might not have any previous knowledge. Overall this is an

ongoing process that has ceased to stop over a long period of time. If we do not solve this

problem now we are going to have a very non diverse workplace as a whole. Either that or it is

just going to stay how it is now. Over time as a whole we in society want to progress not stay the

same. In conclusion, the main limitation to the Hispanic and African American education gap is

that they have low income families which can branch out to many other things that unfortunately

don't favor the success of the student. If the students aren't successful then the gap will continue

to be existent for future years to come.

Literature Review
These sources entitle the history, statistics, and improvement of the Minority Achievement Gap

over the past 60 years. Also these sources are reliable and full of important content regarding the

Minority Achievement Gap.

History: The Minority Achievement Gap has been an issue since the segregation times as we

know. The gap existed because in those days schools were segregated and the whites were

receiving better education than the blacks. For example, the whites always had the new schools

with the new books and the educated teachers whereas all the blacks had were hand me downs.

This has obviously had a heavy impact on where minorities stand today on this issue. According

to the US News and World Report this gap has barely narrowed within the past 50 years. This

trend is very unfortunate because the past has basically set minorities up for failure. Minorities

are putting forth their best effort to decrease this as much as possible but as of the past 50 years

not much has changed.

Statistics: Based off of my research on many sources the statistics correlate properly with what I

said in the previous section. For example, 87 percent of white students in grade 12 scored ahead

of the average black 12th grader. Also according to generationschools.org the percentage of

students graduating on time within Asians and Whites exceed the number of African American

and Hispanic students graduating on time by approximately 20%. Good news is that overtime

minorities have increased in the aspect of decreasing the gap. Bad news is that the increase isn’t

as good as it could or should be.

Improvement: As stated in the previous section we have not increased largely in the aspect of the

minority achievement gap as a whole. However, according to the Atlantic Media Company

classrooms have become more diverse which is a very good start into making the gap non

existent. Also The Educational Opportunity Monitoring Project tells us that the scores of blacks

and hispanics have significantly raised in the last 30 years. Referring to the same project it also

tells us that the minority education gap has significantly narrowed in larger states and has

widened in smaller states. Lastly we know that something is at least trying to be done by the

government to fix this prominent issue. For example, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

brought light to the issue and let citizens know that this is a very important issue that deserves

attention.

Discussion

What is the Minority Achievement Gap and how did it come to be?
This very distinct issue by the name of the Minority Achievement Gap has been very prominent

for the last few decades. The Achievement Gap by definition according to the Education Week is

the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. This gap takes into

consideration many aspects of education these aspects include grades, standardized-test scores,

course selection, dropout rates, and college-completion rates. Specifically, the Minority

Achievement Gap focuses on Hispanics and African Americans. There have been many efforts to

overcome this issue but unfortunately none of them has made a major impact. The history of this

issue dates back to about the 1950’s when segregation was in full affect. In these difficult times

African Americans did not have access to the same school supplies, books, resources as the

privileged whites. Unfortunately this has always gave one race an advantage over another. As we

all know education is an very essential aspect of becoming successful when you become older. In

this situation this is clearly unfair because this basically means that it is easier for whites to be

successful in the real world for something that happened 60 years ago. Of course times have

changed since then and we are more integrated but once again it is not completely equal. As i

stated previously efforts have been made but they have been unsuccessful. For example, the No

Child Left Behind Act of 2001 brought light to the issue and started to let citizens know that this

is an issue that needs to be resolved. According to the US News and World Report the gap has

barely narrowed within the past 50 years. This is not good at all, even though African Americans

now have the same access as the whites they are still a step behind. However, this problem is not

only between African Americans and Whites. On the performance scale Asians and Whites are at

the top and Blacks and Hispanics are at the bottom. All in all minorities have been set up for

failure because of past historical disparities.

What's a research paper without statistics?

As stated in the previous section the Minority Achievement Gap has barely decreased within the

last 60 years. Even though relations have gotten better the gap is still existent. According to the

usnews.com “The finding is part of a series from Education Next commemorating the 50th

anniversary of "Equality of Educational Opportunity," also known as the Coleman Report, a

breakthrough report on education equity written by James Coleman, then a sociologist at Johns

Hopkins University in Baltimore. Also according to the same source “in both math and reading

the average black student in grade 12 placed in the 13th percentile of the score distribution,

meaning that 87 percent of white students in grade 12 scored ahead of the average black 12th

grader.” Lastly “the average 12th grade black student, according to data from the 2013 National

Assessment for Educational Progress, placed only in the 19th percentile. In reading, the

achievement gap has improved slightly more than in math, but after a half century, the average

black student scores at just the 22nd percentile.” This proves that we have slightly increased but

not nearly as much as we want to. Asians and whites exceed the number of blacks and hispanics

students graduating on time by approximately 20%. Many researchers are shocked with the

recent findings because they feel as though school systems in states are always talking about how

they are working to increase but it is so slow. Hanushek estimates that if the achievement gaps

continue close at such an incremental rate, it will be roughly two and a half centuries before the

black-white math gap closes and over one and a half centuries until the reading gap closes. This

is so unfortunate because in other words this is about 250 years and we will not be alive at this
time to see this difference. Hopefully my generation can be the individuals to overcome the

Minority Achievement Gap because it is a problem we’ve been dealing with for far too long.

The Little Difference that has been made

According to atlantic.com “new era began in September 2014, when for the first time, kids of

color constituted a majority of America’s K-12 public school students nationwide. That tilt will

only deepen: The National Center for Education Statistics projects that by 2025, whites will

shrink to 46 percent of public school students. This statistic represents that minorities have been

increasing enrollment within the last couple years. This also means that classrooms have become

more diverse which is a step in the right path to closing the gap. If our classrooms are more

diverse then this might lead to more success within minorities. Though the population is starting

to reach the same numbers the performance gap is still prominent with African Americans and

Hispanics. A very interesting fact is that Asian Americans students now exceed whites on most

key achievement measures. This trend is interesting because technically Asians are minorities as

well but they weirdly don't fit in the category with the African Americans and Hispanics. Also

atlantic.com states that “ Recent trends offer some reason for optimism. Since 2000, with little

notice, the gap between both African American and Hispanic students and whites has narrowed

in the 4th and 8th grade tests in math and the 4th grade reading test conducted for the National

Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation’s common yardstick of student performance. On

8th grade math, the gap since has narrowed for Hispanic but not black students. That’s a

significant improvement from the 1990s when African Americans and Hispanics failed to gain

ground on most of those tests. Similarly, after changing little from the 1970s through 2000, high
school graduation rates for Hispanic and African American students have climbed steadily since

2002 to the highest levels ever recorded. Also referring to atlantic.com once again it states that

“These results suggest the U.S. may have too quickly abandoned the No Child Left Behind

legislation that President Bush signed in 2001 (and President Obama modified with a waiver

system that allowed states to trade more flexibility for greater accountability). That law faced

opposition from teachers and some parents over its requirements for annual student tests and

mandated intervention in struggling schools. But it also required schools to publicly report test

results for each racial group and prescribed clear penalties if they failed to improve performance

for all students. The test and graduation trends for minority students suggest that pressure had a

positive (if often resented) effect. All in all this section tells us that we just have to trust the

process.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the history behind this gap dates back to segregation times when whites had a very

clear advantage by having better schools, better books, and better teachers. Also we can conclude

that statistics tell us that the gap is still very large and has only decreased by little in the past 60

years. Several efforts have been made to close the gap completely but the process is taking
 entirely too long. One effort that has played a major role is the No Child Left Behind Act of

2001. This act basically just attempted to close the gap. Though the process is very slow

hopefully we will eventually find a way to overcome this issue as soon as possible.

References

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mine/2016/01/13/achievement-gap-between-white-and-black-students-still-gaping
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December 08, 2017, from https://www.theroot.com/performance-gap-widens-between-whites-

and-minorities-1790889519

Minority Performance [Personal interview]. (2017, December 08).

Bazzaz, D. (2017, January 13). School stats: Racial achievement gaps exist even in Washington's

highest-performing schools. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from

https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/school-stats-racial-achievement-gaps-exist-even-in-

states-highest-performing-schools/

Jencks, C., & Phillips, M. (2016, July 28). The Black-White Test Score Gap: Why It Persists and

What Can Be Done. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-

black-white-test-score-gap-why-it-persists-and-what-can-be-done/

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December 08, 2017, from http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/student-proficiency-stagnant-race-gap-

wide

Achievement Gaps. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2017, from

https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/gaps/
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achievement-gap-in-U-S-academic-performance-Pennsylvania-lags-

behind/stories/201512100044

(n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/j/jencks-

gap.html

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from http://www.diversityjournal.com/9223-minority-test-scores-behind-whites/

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Appendix A

What are the factors that leads to a disparity in the achievement gap between African Americans and the

general population?

Mainor: Early childhood, Deficiency in the home, Socioeconomic concerns

What are some institutionalized practices that have led to the issue?

Mainor: unawareness of cultural differences. For example, misplacing African American into special education

due to their behavior rather than their intellect

How are educational institutions measuring students achievement and non achievement?

Mainor: Algebra 1 serves as a gateway course to move students towards achievement which is where the gap

begins

What resources can be in place to reduce the gap?

Mainor: creating high expectations for African Americans and Hispanics

How can we decrease the Achievement Gap?

Mainor: We can have more professional development for educators to use pedagogy

Appendix B
Appendix C