Race gap remains in DC public schools - wtop.com: Test scores show that D.C. public schools are improving. But those same scores show the gap between white students and black students is getting worse.
Only 29 percent of the students in the poorest parts of the District can read proficiently, compared to 86 percent of the students in Northwest.
'Despite the progress, we still have a gap between where our white students are and where our students of color are,' D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee says. 'Continuing on with aggressive reforms is really the way to ensure that that gap continues to close.'
Because of the low test scores in poorer neighborhoods, more than half of D.C. students, including Mayor Fenty's children, don't attend their neighborhood schools. Instead, many of them go to public schools in wealthier neighborhoods.
Still, there is good news.
'If you look at the achievement gap now versus where it was in 2007, we have improved that gap,' Rhee says.
