Minority learning lag persists

The thinking behind the federal No Child Left Behind Act was that placing public schools under the microscope with a federal accountability system would result in achievement gains for all schoolchildren.

In some respects, NCLB has achieved that end. The latest results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress show significant gains in mathematics proficiency. Reading is a different story. Reading scores for fourth-grade students have increased modestly since the law took effect in 2002. But in at least a dozen states, the percentage of students who read at the proficiency level has remained static or has dropped.

Worst of all is the minimal progress in narrowing the achievement gap between white and minority students. On average, black fourth-graders scored 27 points lower on the reading assessment than their white peers. In eighth-grade math, the gaps between average scores of white students and their black and Hispanic peers remained about the same as in 1990, with incremental improvement at best.

Seemingly, these outcomes do little but fuel debate about NCLB itself — whether it should be reauthorized; shelved or substantially altered. Whatever Congress decides, it must settle on a path that results in improved academic achievement for ethnic minorities who have traditionally lagged behind white peers.

This is not a call for affirmative action or preferential treatment. Rather, it is a recognition how the United States' demographics are changing. In a growing number of cities in the West, minority students outnumber white students. As this generation of students cycle out of the public education system, they will become tomorrow's workers and leaders.

All students need to succeed academically to keep the United States competitive in a global economy. Schools across the country must improve high school completion rates among groups with historically high dropout rates. Those students must also be far better prepared for the world of work and post-secondary education than any previous generation.

Some educators say the failing of NCLB is that high-stakes testing doesn't improve overall proficiency. Teachers feel tremendous pressure to teach to the test so their school is not tabbed for failing to make "adequate yearly progress." That's hardly the best recipe to ensure academic success across the board.

More educational research must be devoted to bridging cultural differences in classrooms. In the not-too-distant past, students of color were not well-represented in textbooks or other educational materials.

Only recently has brain imaging been available to demonstrate how early childhood learning — whether it occurs at home or in more structured settings — helps children have the best start possible when they enter school.

There is no magic pill or program. But it makes some sense that a greater emphasis on early childhood education would be one means to help ensure that all students start school with a similar degree of school readiness, which could potentially help close the achievement gap.