2011 National Math, Reading Test Scores Show Sluggish Growth, Sustained Achievement Gaps: ...The exam found consistently large gaps in the performance of white, black and Hispanic students, despite their gradual narrowing over time. For example, in fourth-grade math, 9 percent of white students performed at or above the highest level, compared to only 2 percent of Hispanic students and 1 percent of black students. A greater number of students than in 2009 were found to be eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch, a common measure of poverty in education.
"It's more of the same: It's good that the long-term improvement trend is being shared among different economic groups and racial-ethnic groups, but we're not seeing closing in gaps," said Kevin Carey, policy director of the D.C.-based think tank Education Sector. "There have been other time periods where we saw rapid gap closing, in the 1970s in particular. We haven't been in that for a long time."
