Over the past few years, there has been an increasing belief that our schools fail not only children of color, but poor children. I’ve held this belief myself. New test data out of California, however, paints a different picture. Even when parental income was taken into consideration, black and latino students performed lower on standardized compared to white and Asian children of the same economic class. In math, for example, 30 percent of African-American students who are not economically disadvantaged scored at proficient or above; among Latinos in the same group, it was 36 percent. Among low-income white students, it was 38 percent.

The state superintendent of public instruction is taking notice. “These are not just economic achievement gaps. They are racial achievement gaps,” said Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction. “We cannot afford to excuse them. We must take notice and take action.” (SJ Mercury News) Educators and civic leaders, he said, must break the commonly held assumption that Latino and black students’ low scores are due largely to the effects of poverty. For the first time, O’Connell compiled statistics that showed black and Latino students who are not designated as poor are performing below white students who are at or near the poverty level. (LA Times)

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

“Educators have only theories about just what may be happening. Poverty clearly plays a role in student achievement – children from poor families tend not to have the same support network, and their more poorly funded schools have fewer resources than those in wealthier neighborhoods.

Beyond that, some researchers point to cultural differences among races that may cause parents of one ethnicity to focus more on children’s academic achievement than those of another ethnicity. Others say access to preschool education or the parent’s own educational level – factors that can vary among ethnicities – also may be important.”

Statewide, 41% of students reached the “advanced” or “proficient” level in math and 43% in English on standardized tests — scores that marked no movement from last year in math and only a one-point rise in English, according to results released Wednesday by the state Education Department. In California, white students cross the proficiency threshold at about twice the rate as Latinos and blacks in math and English — a gap that has remained virtually unchanged over the last five years, since the current assessment program began. (LA Times)

Overall, the data show White students are more likely to be proficient in math than their non-poor African-American and Latino counterparts. Education Trust-West, a public policy group, stated:

…even if we close the gaps in California and raise the performance of minority students to the same level as our White students, it won’t be good enough for any group of kids—California’s White students trail far behind their White peers across the nation … To this point, the data reveal a disturbing trend, while 62% of California’s White 8th graders are proficient on our state standards in English, California’s White 8th graders trail behind their peers in almost every other state in the nation in reading. For example, our White 8th graders outperform their White 8th grade peers in reading in only four states: Alabama, Hawaii, Nevada and West Virginia.

O’Connell emphasized the economic toll that the growing ranks of poorly educated minorities could have on California. “I really do believe that the biggest threat to our ability as a state to remain the sixth- or seventh-largest economy in the world is to make sure is that these [groups of students] are prepared to become contributing members in our workforce.” Governor Schwarzenegger has declared 2008 as the “Year of Education.”

Education Trust-West, while recognizing that there is no magic bullet solution, identified several high action strategies for impacting education:

• Getting students off to a strong start in the elementary years, especially in reading, by helping teachers to master systematic, research-tested instructional practices
• Ensuring that all students are placed in rigorous courses in middle and high school that will prepare all students for college and good careers
• Using purposeful professional development to improve teachers’ skills in teaching strategies that accelerate student learning
• Targeting resources to meet the needs of individual students, especially those with lower skills
• Ensuring that all students have access to teachers who can provide instruction equal to the quality of content, and getting our strongest teachers to the students who need them the most
• Providing extra time and instruction for students who arrive behind, then arranging that time more flexibly.