“Closing the Achievement Gap Without Widening a Racial One” by Michael Winerip
New York Times, February 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/education/14winerip.html?ref=education
Topic: Profile of Harvard Professor, Ronald Ferguson, who is working to close the achievement gap.
Summary: Richard Ferguson travels around the country to measure causes of the achievement gap. His background, based in economics, leads him to use a lot of quantitative data. He also meets with students, faculty members, and parents, to explain how the achievement gap can be narrowed. Ferguson attributes the gap to two main causes. First, economics, second, “black parents are not as academically oriented in raising their children as whites.”
Intended audience: General Public
Key Points:
- The achievement gap is a real problem. For example, Ferguson calculated that in a variety of racially mixed suburbs, the average grade of black students was a C+ while white students averaged a B+
- Even in a “wealthy suburb, blacks are not as well-to-do; 79 percent are in the bottom 50 percent financially, while 73 percent of whites are in the top 50 percent.”
- “Black parents are not as academically oriented in raising their children as whites…by fifth grade, 60 percent to 70 percent of whites still read daily to their children, compared with 30 percent to 40 percent of blacks.”
Relevance: This article relates to educating a diverse community of learners, addressing teacher biases, and working to build bridges between parents, students, and educators. I am sure it will draw parallels to the RACE documentary series we will be watching on Saturday.
