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Achievement gaps occur when one group of students outperforms another and the difference in the average scores for the two groups is so significant that it is even larger than the margin of error. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress’ report (NAEP), the Hispanic-white and black-white achievement gap the scores in mathematics and reading for these groups has indicated patterns and changes in gaps over time. In 2007, mathematics scores for both Black and White public school students in grades four and eight nationwide, as measured by an NAEP assessment, were higher than other previous assessments going back to 1990. The conclusion was also true for Black and White fourth-graders on NAEP 2007 reading assessment. White students had higher scores than black students averagely on all assessments.
The nationwide gaps in 2007 were even narrower than in previous assessments at both grades 4 and 8 in mathematics and at grade 4 in reading. White students were found to have 26 points higher than Black students in each subject. The NAEP scales of mathematics and reading allow the relationships between the performance of students and different circumstantial aspects measured such as race examinable. The relationship amid the achievement and an additional variable is not illuminating on the underlying cause. It may be a result of several other variables. Changes in size of the achievement gap between Black and White students could be affected by demographic changes in size of the achievement gap between Black and White students especially at the state level.
There are several ways to reduce race-based and other group disparities in performance, intellectual attainment, and achievement motivation. The Psychology Department at the University of Colorado has conducted school settings as well as laboratory requirements. The department has successfully reduced the racial achievement gap by improving minority students’ grades and standardized test performance. The department is interested in the chronic effects of threat and the ways to address them. It seeks not only to pinpoint the mechanisms affecting evaluations but also the tools supporting threat over time, the openings for interjecting those mechanisms and the consequences that follow from such interruptions or interventions. The department is currently investigating why such small interventions have large effects. They initially used teachers’ grade books to obtain a picture of how performance fluctuates over time as a function of race. As the term continued, the performance of all students especially those of minority students in the control condition, deteriorated. Self-reported stigmatization among minority students increased as their performance fell. Although the treatment effect on any individual assignment was small, the effect accumulated during the academic term to large effects on final grades (Vannerman, Hamilton, Anderson, & Rahman, 2009).
According to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, minimizing or closing of the racial educational achievement gap, is important in the coming decades as the country’s population of color continues to grow. United States is currently experiencing growing levels of wealth and income inequality which are contributing to longstanding ethnic and racial gaps in education outcomes and other areas. The large gaps together with the significant demographic changes threaten the future of the country. Closing ethnic and racial gaps is not only likely to fulfill the potential of people of color, but it is also crucial to the well-being of the country. The report quantifies the economic benefits of closing the most harmful ethnic and racial gaps.
The report places the educational achievement gaps in the context to help explain their importance and the reason they exist. The report reviews data on the growing inequality, intensifying global economic competition and demographic changes. It clarifies the need to address educational achievement gaps and it explains why the benefits of closing gaps are great. It describes factors that cause educational achievement gaps and it helps explain why the benefits of closing gaps are great. It also describes the factors that cause educational achievement gaps and it offers public policies that could help close them. They discuss the literature on the importance of academic achievement in economic growth, the findings and the methodology used in the analysis. The report indicates the aspect of the staggering economic cost of the failure to invest in the development of the nation’s people.
It estimates the increase in the United States economic growth and it would occur if the ethnic and racial achievement gaps were closed and the educational playing field leveled. It projects how much greater the United States gross domestic product would be until 2050 if the educational achievements of Hispanic and black children were raised to match those of native-born white children. The study does not examine the gaps that also exists among other groups including Native Americans, Asians and children of more than one race as a result of data limitations and small sample sizes. It implies that the achievement differentials among the groups does not exist, are not harmful, and they do not deserve attention.
If the United States were successful in closing the educational achievement gaps between white children and Hispanic and black children, the country’s economy would be 5.8 percent larger in 2050. Closing racial and ethnic achievement gaps would have significant positive impacts on local, state and federal revenues. It can be done by raising incomes and increasing the size of the economy (Center for American Progress, 2015).

References

Center for American Progress. (2015). The Economic Benefits of Closing Educational Achievement Gaps. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/report/2014/11/10/100577/the-economic-benefits-of-closing-educational-achievement-gaps/
Vannerman, A., Hamilton, L., Anderson, J. B., & Rahman, T. (2009). Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2009455.aspx