Data
Shows Wide Racial Gap In Achievement
(From Page 10A of Beavercreek News
Current, March 6, 2002)
Columbus, Ohio (AP) - Data the Ohio Department of Education made available Tuesday prove what critics
of state’s proficiency test system have been saying for years -
wide gaps in achievement scores exist among racial groups.
For the first time, the age and
race data will be published in district report cards the state issues later this
year because the Legislature required that in last year’s Senate Bill 1.
“We’re putting it on the
table to publicly discuss,” said Patti Grey, the department’s spokeswoman.
In Ohio, 80 percent of students
are white and 16.5 percent are black. Hispanics,
Asians, and Native Americans make up less than five percent of students.
The gap is largest in the
fourth and sixth grades, where an average of 33 percent of black students
performed at levels considered proficient in the five test areas, compared with
an average of 68 percent of white students.
That’s a difference of 35 percentage points.
For example, in reading last
fall, only 27.6 percent of black fourth-graders met the state standard compared
with 62.3 percent of whites. In
writing, only 59.8 percent of blacks met the standard while 83.5 percent of
whites did.
Sixth-graders experienced
similar disparities.
In science and citizenship,
23.7 percent and 35.6 percent of blacks, respectively, met the standards.
Meanwhile, 68.3 percent of whites met the science standard, while 75.8
percent of whites met the citizenship benchmark.
The difference between the
achievement of blacks and whites decreases in high school years.
It was 18 percentage points in the ninth-grade and 28 percentage points
in the 12th grade.
“There’s no
one-size-fits-all solution to closing the gap,” Grey said.
State Sen. C.J. Prentiss, a
Democrat from Cleveland and a long time critic of Ohio’s proficiency test
system, said the solution is smaller class sizes and teachers certified in the
subject areas that they teach.
“If the proper resources are
there to provide an education for the kids then you close that gap,” Prentiss
said. “We have not seen the level of leadership from the
Education Department to address this issue.”
Grey said the state has worked
to ensure all children have the same expectations, low-performing students get
the help they need and that competent teachers are in every classroom.
|