Mind the Widening Achievement Gap in New York Schools

In 2009, Mayor Bloomberg declared, "Over the past six years, we’ve done everything possible to narrow the achievement gap - and we have. In some cases, we’ve reduced it by half...We are closing the shameful achievement gap faster than ever."

Unfortunately, this declaration turned out not to be true. Rather than closing, the achievement gap is widening in New York City. Claims of a closing gap were based on passing rates of state tests whose standards were so low that it appeared that all students, especially blacks and Latinos, made huge gains.

Looking at the national tests, called NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), the scores did not look good at all. The achievement gap was not closing at all. Reports of a closing achievement gap were wildly exaggerated. In fact, the achievement gap has remained constant in American cities. Historian Thomas Sugrue says that the biggest gains for African-Americans were made way back in the 1970's not today. Wild claims of getting everyone meeting standards by 2014, as George Bush did when No Child Left Behind passed will not be met.

So, what can we learn from the 70's? Surgue claims that part of the increase in achievement was due to the fact that the country was still trying to desegregate schools. That attempt to desegregate addressed, albeit imperfectly, the problem of separate and unequal schools. Other scholars have claimed that the Great Society programs of the 1970's provided poor families a social safety net that peaked in the 70's but that slowly dissipated in the decades following causing concentrated levels of poverty along with low levels of achievement.

What is interesting about these arguments is that achievement will increase if we change things outside of the schools, not inside. It is not a matter of raising standards, turning around failing schools, or increasing the amount of charters that will close the achievement gap, but we may have a great impact on the achievement gap by desegregating our schools, and providing families with economic stability.

Neither one of these ideas is on the table at all. One of the places in the country that had a successful desegregation plan, Wake County, North Carolina, just voted to reverse their policy. We need to raise these issues in all circles to keep them in the conversation around improving schools because we need policies that will impact what goes on inside and outside the classroom to address the achievement gap.

Photo credit: Larry Johnson