News on achievement gap

At a time when news about educational achievement gaps is mostly negative, it’s worth noting even a glimmer of positive change. Recent data from the respected National Center for Education Statistics indicate that for the first time in four decades, one of the gaps is nearly closed.

The study found that the high-school-or-equivalent completion rate for the nation’s African American 18- to 24-yearolds is not measurably different from that of whites in the same age group.

NCES reported a promising trend of more black and Latino teens and young adults understanding the need for a high school diploma, GED or some other form of educational certificate. It means that fewer young people are doing without some kind of post-middle-school education.

Joel McFarland, NCES statistician and an author of the report, told an editorial writer that the disparity between black and white young people has narrowed over time. “It’s within a pattern of findings that we’re seeing across a lot of different data sources—it’s pretty clear that high school completion rates have increased and dropout rates have decreased.”

McFarland said NCES collects and reports the data, but as a nonpartisan, independent agency it mostly leaves the interpretation to other education researchers and scholars. He acknowledged that significant disparities still exist for the traditional four-year graduation rates that are based on state and school district public school information.

It’s an encouraging sign, but it still doesn’t eliminate continuing achievement disparities from preschool to grade 12. The strong need to work on those gaps remains.

A fall 2019 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis study showed test score differences in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math proficiency as high as 30 percentage points between some students of color and poorer students versus their more affluent white peers. Those persistent, wider-than-average disparities prompted the bank officials to call Minnesota’s gaps a “crisis.”

Based on the study, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari and retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page recently announced an effort to change the state’s Constitution to guarantee the right to a quality public education for all children. They’re hoping to make education an undeniable, fundamental civil right.

Though much work remains to narrow and close education gaps, the NCES study indicates some progress among young adults across the country.