Schools Slow in Closing Gaps Between Races

Schools Slow in Closing Gaps Between Races




By SAM DILLON
Published: November 20, 2006
When President Bush signed his sweeping education law a year into his presidency, it set 2014 as the deadline by which schools were to close the test-score gaps between minority and white students that have persisted since standardized testing began.

Now, as Congress prepares to consider reauthorizing the law next year, researchers and a half-dozen recent studies, including three issued last week, are reporting little progress toward that goal. Slight gains have been seen for some grade levels.
Despite concerted efforts by educators, the test-score gaps are so large that, on average, African-American and Hispanic students in high school can read and do arithmetic at only the average level of whites in junior high school.

"The gaps between African-Americans and whites are showing very few signs of closing," Michael T. Nettles, a senior vice president at the Educational Testing Service, said in a paper he presented recently at Columbia University. One ethnic minority, Asians, generally fares as well as or better than whites.



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/education/20gap.html?th&emc=th



It is easy to cop out and place the entire blame on the schools. Are they the problem? If not what do you believe contributes to the problem?