"The 'achievement gap' in education refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. It is most often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between many African-American and Hispanic students, at the lower end of the performance scale, and their non-Hispanic white peers, and the similar academic disparity between students from low-income and well-off families. The achievement gap shows up in grades, standardized-test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college-completion rates. It has become a focal point of education reform efforts." --Education Week

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Rod Paige's New Book

Dr. Rod Paige, former Secretary of Education, published a book in 2010 called, The Black-White Achievement Gap: Why Closing it is the Greatest Civil Rights Issue of our Time.



From the book's introduction: "When it comes to race in America, we must face one uncomfortable but undeniable fact. Almost 50 years after the birth of the civil rights movement, inequality still reigns supreme in our classrooms. At a time when African-American students trail their white peers on academic tests and experience high dropout rates, low college completion rates, and a tendency to shy away from majors in hard sciences and mathematics, the Black-White achievement gap in our schools has become the major barrier to racial equality and social justice in America. In fact, it is arguably the greatest civil rights issue of our time."

Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. Tuman HomesMarch 5, 2011 at 1:11 PM

    Unfortunately Dr. Paige is not my favorite example of a 'leader.' He was the superintendent of Houston when they were getting accolades for their test scores. After GWB appointed him as the Secretary of Education, the numbers were shown to be fraudulent from his old district.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)