Young students improve, but later minority achievement gap remains - USATODAY.com: For decades, public schools have focused on closing the stubborn achievement gap that separates African-American children from their white peers. New data out today from the U.S. Education Department show that the effort may have a limited shelf life for kids.
Since the early 1990s, schools have helped minority elementary schoolers close the achievement gap in basic math and reading skills, with real progress showing up recently on a federally administered test given to thousands of kids around the time they're in fourth grade.
But by the time they get to middle school, it seems, their progress all but vanishes.
Educators have known for years that scores for all students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, tend to flatten out in middle school and high school, with few if any year-to-year score gains; but today's findings offer the first complete look at just how poorly older black students do compared with white students.
