Running head: EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
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Examining the Achievement Gap Through Exploration of the Development of a Personal Philosophy and
Theory Applied to Data from One High School
Gordon Brown
George Mason University
Author Note: Acknowledgements
This paper was submitted to Dr. Gary Galluzzo in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
course The Achievement Gap. Thus, for the purpose of the course parts of the paper alludes to class
discussion and instructor comments. I also want to thank FCPS and its administrators for collecting and
providing data and commentary specific to gaps at Fairfax High School.
Contact: Gordon P. Brown, FAST TRAIN International Programs, George Mason University,
4400 University Dr., MS 1E8, Fairfax, VA 22030. E-mail: gbrownj@gmu.edu
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“I am waiting for them to stop talking about the ‘Other,’ to stop even describing how important it is to be
able to speak about difference” (hooks, 1990, pp. 151-152 as cited in Fine, 1994).
Introduction
What follows is a mixed methods1 approach to answering the essential question that seems to
permeate our coursework in the form of a persistent challenge presented by the instructor, to wit, what
will I do about the achievement gap present in the school I work in as well as other schools? To address
that question begs for the narrative mode in order to construct “a ‘place’ for [myself] in the possible world
[I] will encounter” (Bruner, 1996, p. 40). Thus, the first part of this paper will employ informal
Naturalistic Narrative Inquiry1. The second will look at the quantitative data provided by the school
where I currently teach. The third will briefly discuss how I would I apply my understandings based on
experience and literature to the achievement gap in that school and other contexts.
Discovering the Achievement Gap: A Personal Narrative
Most of my career as a teacher, which began in an elementary school in 1993, has involved
teaching English and/or Language Arts. In that capacity, I’ve tried to engender a love for reading in my
students. After all, I knew my own love of reading as a child got me through middle school in good
standing. J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, L. Frank Baum, and Agatha Christie were my pre-teen favorites.
Recently, Roald Dahl—whose “Fantastic Mr. Fox” I enjoyed as a toddler--has gained my favor. Mostly
for his style, but partly for the critiques of parents and teachers present in his fiction as well as his sociopolitical commentaries. The following narrative borrows part of its structure from Boy, which Dahl
describes as not an autobiography, “full of all sorts of boring details,” but rather a collection of
memorable anecdotes, “each of them…seared on my memory…all I had to do was skim them off the top
of my consciousness and write them down (Dahl, 1984, p. 9). More specifically, in order to discover how
my philosophy developed, the anecdotes below were purposefully theoretically sampled, along the lines
of Corbin and Strauss’ (1990) method for grounded theory (p. 8)1. That is, only those experiences that
relate to the development of my philosophy and theory regarding the achievement gap--and its possible
solutions--are included.
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High School: Embodying the Gap
As a student I managed to embody the achievement gap: my junior year in high school I failed all
of my fall semester classes, yet scored the third highest on the PSATs, which qualified me for a
scholarship. This gap between performance and potential frustrated a number of my teachers. I enjoyed
the benefits of living with both my parents, who were also unhappy with my lack of achievement—
particularly my father who often barked, “If you spent half the time working on your math that you spend
learning song lyrics you’d do much better.” The refrain on my reports from middle school onward was,
“Gordon is not working to his potential.” In the winter of my junior year in high school, one of my best
friends died in a freak accident. After that I straightened up and earned decent grades in the spring
semester, though I still managed to get a short vacation in the form of suspension from school for
accumulating too many missed classes. I could have been a supporting case study for Yvette Jackson’s
(2009) determination that the gap is not a matter of race, but rather of the "difference between children's
potential and their performance" (as cited in Welsh, 2009).
College: The Gap Between The Promise and Reality
Despite poor high school grades and class rank, a reputable university let me in (mostly thanks to
strong SAT scores and football). While in college I worked for a sales company: my manager was a 19
year-old high school drop out. He was an Italian immigrant making a lot of money, living his dream—the
American dream. Meanwhile, I was spending a lot of time and money in college, mostly enjoying myself
while barely pursuing studies in English and economics. I ended up getting kicked out of college during
my last semester and working as a manager for that sales company for a couple of years before
completing my undergraduate degree.
After working for a couple of years I went back to get a Masters in Education. However, I’ve yet
to match the salary I earned with a high school degree, working for that sales company.
Teaching in Metro DC: Too Many Gaps…
…in resources.
As a pre-service teacher I switched from a traditional program to a professional development
school/urban residency program. In the traditional program I enjoyed a variety of field placements in
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relatively well-funded schools such as Annandale, Glasgow Middle, and the like. In the urban residency
program I spent every day, all year long, working in Cardozo High School.
The copy machines didn’t work—and even if they did there was no paper. The school didn’t pay
for subs—if a teacher missed school students just went to the auditorium and did seat time. And the
teachers missed school. In late November, one of many ridiculous intercom interruptions blared,
“Congratulations Cardozo! Today we have 100% attendance.” Truancy was a major problem: the school
suffered at around a 50% attendance rate. I looked around my classroom confused as 3-4 students were
missing—one of which had never come to school. The AP joyfully continued, “All teachers came to
work today!”
In fact, I was given an additional class to teach: a 9th grade English class. The 9th grade
coordinator didn’t want to teach that section. She kept another section, for which she was routinely 15-20
minutes late. “You’re late Ms. B.,” a student made the mistake of pointing out. “I am not late!” She
screamed, “You’re late! You don’t tell me I’m late! You should be in your seats working!”
The roof leaked in my English classroom. It leaked all year long.
I also taught a literacy class. About four months into the year, I decided I should check to see if
one of my students--a lovely young woman who threatened to stab me in the eye with her pencil at least
once per class--was identified as emotionally disturbed (ED). After a couple of weeks of tracking down
the special education coordinator I was informed that indeed she was identified and that I should talk to
her special education teacher. Upon finding her special education teacher, who asked for my class list, I
was informed that A) this young woman was classified as severely ED, and that, B) in fact, all but one of
my thirteen literacy students were identified, many with dual classifications LD/ED. However, the
teacher also told me that particular period was her break time, so I was on my own. Welcome to inclusion
Cardozo style.
Around this time, DC recruited a general to serve as superintendent, General Becton. In addition
to fighting military battles, he had some recent success presiding over a university in Texas and served as
director of FEMA under Reagan. Upon arrival he immediately began trying to fix the leaking roofs. As
one student said, “At least he made them stop serving us rotten meat and sour milk.” (This was true: the
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
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school system had regularly served old, inedible food). He won the food battle, but he found himself
fighting on too many fronts: parents, teachers, bureaucracy. Out flanked and out-numbered, he left after
just sixteen months (Strauss & Loeb, 1998).
That year Cardozo, the gargantuan brick building on the hill built to serve thousands of students,
graduated less than a hundred. A number of teachers were riffed (RIF stood for reduction in force and
meant that teachers lost their jobs because the school attendance/budget couldn’t support them). So, I
submitted my application, but I knew they weren’t hiring. I would have to teach elsewhere. While I only
worked in DCPS for a couple of years, when you’re in it, the subnormal normalizes. The rotten food,
lack of special education services, leaking buildings, teachers skipping their own classes, broken copy
machines and some of the more severe problems described below, seemed normal.
…in reading.
The students in my literacy class at Cardozo couldn’t read even close to grade level. According
to the Independent Reading Inventory (IRI), a valid, normed, reading assessment we administered in that
September 1997, all my 9th graders read at or below a 6th grade level: some scored at a 3rd grade reading
level. I dual certified in Secondary English education and K-12 ESOL education, yet none of the courses
prepared me to teach emergent reading to teenagers. As Welsh (2010) laments, high school teachers
don’t expect to have to teach reading, thus, it seems neither do their teacher education programs. Through
hard work, a little knowledge and a lot of luck, most of my students demonstrated gains of at least a year
in reading level when we re-administered the IRI in January 1998—just four months later. Nonetheless, I
knew I could have done a lot better; thus began my search for a reading program for older/secondary
students who read three or more years below grade-level. A couple of years later I found one published
by SRA/Open Court/McGraw-Hill called Breaking the Code--a couple of years too late for those 13
students.
…in curricular opportunities:“I just want to fix cars.”
A student at Cardozo once told me, “I just want to fix cars.” There was no program at the high
school that connected learning to automobile repair. A couple of years later a vocational technology
charter school opened up. Reports unfortunately surfaced about it being particularly poorly run. This
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
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past year at Fairfax High School, where I now teach, two students in the auto-mechanic academy program
won awards in the state auto-mechanic contest. However, for the boys at Cardozo in 1997 we had begun
narrowing the curriculum, focusing on basic skills—as Ferguson (2007) and programs like Success For
All may suggest--without regard for job skills.
…in community support.
The majority of students did not have parents and others’ parents did not care. Some students
lived in group homes. Many others lived with their grandmothers or aunts. For others, as per the young
woman in the film of Frederick Douglas, “home was where you put your head.” My wife and I
developed a charter school proposal. While we were raising funds for the school I tried to tap my cousin,
a liberal educator from—coincidentally—Berkeley, CA. This cousin had some relatively wealthy,
powerful friends in DC. His response was that his friends were too involved and busy with their own
children’s private schools to spend time or money on other schools. This added fuel to what I had already
come to believe: that the reason DC schools lack everything is that nobody cares: it’s a small percentage
of children and they lack voice, power and parents. Ten years later these lacks persist: according to
KidsCount.org, in 2009, 61% of children in Washington DC lived in single parent homes—the national
average is just 34% (Annie Casey Foundation, 2011).
…in discipline: “Mr. Brown, I’m’a knock yo’ ass out.”
The smell of sex and drugs lingered in the halls. Students also urinated in corridors and
stairwells, but the bathrooms were locked, so what would you do? Teachers felt threatened. Despite no
less than 17 on-site violence prevention programs, students fought in the hallways and classrooms.
After the new year, I asked students to share their New Year’s resolutions. One of my students, a
parolee we’ll call T., declared, “My resolution is anyone steps up I’m’a knock they ass out.” He then
proceeded, over my feeble attempts to correct and redirect his behavior, to apply this to each male
member of the class, “K. you step to me, I’m’a knock yo’ass out. A. you step to me, I’m’a knock yo’ass
out…Mr. Brown, you step to me, I’m’a knock yo’ass out.” At that point my classroom management
strategy became a bit less feeble. Sadly, it may have been my threatening reactive response that gained
T’s respect that day; maybe that’s all he could understand. Later that year his sister tried to get him to
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punch me in the face (apparently she didn’t like me politely asking her to stop beating up a boy in another
teacher’s classroom), T. refused his sister’s command. Unfortunately, a couple of months after that, T.
was removed from the building in handcuffs.
…in safety: “Mr. Brown, we gonna die!”
Students pulled the fire alarms 2-3 times per day, so we never exited the building. We waited for
the announcement on the intercom telling us, “Ignore the fire alarm, do not exit the building. Repeat:
ignore the fire alarm.” What I didn’t know is that 2-3 times per week the students actually lit the building
on fire. Apparently most were locker fires. The administrators put out these fires quietly—no need to
exit the building.
One day my literacy class of 13 exceptional African-American students--3 years behind in
reading, but two years ahead of the normal ninth grader in chronological age—was actually engaged in
writing workshop. All of them were writing. So, when a girl looked up and said, “Mr. Brown, I smell
smoke,” I wanted to keep them going.
I replied, “You guys are doing some great writing—don’t worry about it.”
A couple of minutes later she persisted, “Mr. Brown I really smell smoke!”
“Don’t worry—keep writing,” I repeated. But I stepped into the hall in the sub-basement where
we taught literacy. There was a charred piece of paper on the floor in the hall. I told the students it was
just a piece of paper.
But a couple of minutes later the girl screeched, “Mr. Brown, smoke is filling the room—we
gonna die!” I calmly stated, “Look, I’m right here—we’re not going to die.” But now I hit the intercom to
the office and asked them to send someone down to our hall to investigate the smoke smell. A minute
later the fire alarm sounded. I waited for the announcement to come on telling us to exit or not. No
announcement came.
A minute into the alarm, I stepped into the hallway: it was filling with smoke. “Okay kids,” I
said, “pack up your things, let’s line up and exit the building.” It turns out this time the perpetrators lit the
bathroom down the hall on fire and barricaded it such that administrators couldn’t get in to extinguish the
fire.
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…in career opportunities.
Two of my brightest 9th grade male students were drug dealers. One of them tried to sell me
drugs a couple of times. The second time I had innocently tried to make pleasant conversation. “E. that’s
a nice coat.”
“You want one? Crack head on the corner sells them.”
“How much?”
“A rock.”
“E., I don’t have that.”
“No problem Mr. Brown. I’ll give you one for $10.”
“E., you know I’m a teacher: are you trying to go to jail?”
“Ha. Jail. Jail for me is a family reunion.”
One day the other dealer, A., who had up to that point rarely graced us with his presence,
announced, “I’m coming to your class.” I don’t remember what we were doing that day—and I wasn’t
nearly as good a teacher then as I am now—I think he just liked that I showed up, seemed to care about
them and their learning and we tried to discuss some of the interesting themes. I made a personal deal
with him: if he hit a decent attendance goal, I would buy him breakfast at Florida Ave. Grill. He hit it.
During breakfast we talked about a lot of things. I did compliment his writing and thinking ability and
expressed my hope that he continue developing those. However, I never tried to sell college on A. or E.
Nor did I preach to them about drug dealing. I think I realized they had thought three moves ahead of me:
they knew a Cardozo degree and even a subsequent third rate college degree would not help them much.
Other than the military, I didn’t know what paths could help them become productive, successful
members of society.
My brightest female 9th grade student had three children. She wrote a story about giving birth—
her description of the epidural pierced our spines with painful brilliance. I counseled her into a GED
program. Her physical beauty garnered her plenty of nurturing attention from her male classmates.
However, in my estimation, her academic talents would not be nurtured in this school.
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As aforementioned, the military seemed to be one viable option out of the public housing
projects, group homes and streets of DC. For a couple of large football players, junior/community college
sports programs occasionally got them to other places. Career counseling and vocational education
appeared extremely limited.
…in teacher quality.
From Cardozo to Glasgow: same kids different outcomes. At Cardozo the ninth grade
coordinator often showed up late—and other teachers frequently didn’t show up. At Glasgow teachers
showed up on time and stayed late. With the extraordinary amount of time teachers made themselves
available after school for extra-help for Glasgow’s students, work to the rule at Glasgow was equivalent
to a strike. Work to the rule at Cardozo would have meant more hours and consequences for truant
teachers.
The Cardozo Experience in Sum
The roof leaks. Students threaten teachers. Teachers threaten students. Many students and
teachers skip school. Daily fire alarms are ignored. Weekly arson attempts are doused. Sex, drugs and
fights go on in the halls. Fights continue in the classrooms. At the 1997 rate, less than half of the 9th
graders would graduate.
A Charter School Plan to Close the Gaps
In the year 2000, my wife and I developed and proposed a plan for a charter school that included
a holistic plan to address many of the above gaps. The plan called for a residential school that provided
for all nutritional needs, school uniforms, a detailed curriculum with parallel tracks for college
preparation and vocational training, a year round calendar and more. As we wrote at the time it was
based on the idea that, “Until we provide Maslow’s Hierarchy, we merely pretend to pursue Bloom’s
Taxonomy, (personal communication, Brown, 1998). We were one of four proposals that made the cut to
the second round of the three round proposal process. The other three were the first KIPP academy in
DC, a school that adopted America’s Choice, and Thurgood Marshall, whose founders were Georgetown
University law school graduates. Ours was the only proposal that boasted partnerships with more than
one university. At the second round the board decided we didn’t have enough capital to succeed.
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Step outside our Superstructure: International Gaps
Partly because of the increasing gaps between rich and poor and white and black, we moved to
Panama in 2005. There poor is different: semi-skilled labor (e.g. construction workers) earned about
$10/day. Teachers earned between $300 and $900/month, depending mostly on years of experience.
Where we lived, many homes were without electricity.
We discovered that we lived about a 10 minute drive from a state-run home for abused and
abandoned children, i.e. an orphanage. My wife and I began volunteering there. We started sports and art
programs. Then I received a small grant to enhance those and add mentor, music and reading recovery
programs.
“El no habla. El es muy especial”: Expectations gaps.
Translation: the director of the home told me one of the boys didn’t talk, was very special needs,
and that I shouldn’t bother trying to teach him to read, but rather just have him draw and play games.
Being a recovering stutterer myself, I recognized some of the symptoms. Indeed, at the age of nine, the
boy could not identify letters in his first language, Spanish. Nonetheless, I ignored the advice of the
director and pulled him into the reading class I started for about six of the children who couldn’t read in
their native language. Within a year he could identify his letters and decode words. He spoke much more
frequently.
Criminal gaps in resources: “Sr. Brown, no tenemos agua.”
I showed up to play and coach soccer with the boys one Saturday, and the employees were yelling
that they didn’t have water. This home was a locked-down institution: partly to protect the children from
abusive parents who might discover their location and partly to keep them from running away. Generally
speaking, there were two custodians on site caring for approximately 50 children ranging from infant to
15 years old. During the day, there were also other staff: secretary, director, kitchen, occasionally a
psychologist, after school teachers. But at night sometimes just one employee was responsible for all 50.
And on weekends it was just two during the day. So, the employees were often stuck during their shifts.
In an institution housing 50 children, water service interruption rapidly turns into a grave health hazard.
No water to wash the babies. Toilets quickly fill. No water to wash hands. No water to drink.
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For the two years I worked at the orphanage, interrupted water service, as well as under-staffing,
proved a persistent hazard. Locking children in a building with no water violates international law as per
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which as of 2009 was ratified by all nations
except the United States and Somalia. I bore witness to this and other forms of criminal neglect at that
orphanage.
A baby died: gaps in healthcare.
We spent a year developing a music camp for the children, who typically wiled away the school
vacation days locked in the institution property. We found a beautiful piece of property off-site with a
river, space to play soccer and basketball. We brought together professional Panamanian artists and
musicians and university professors of music. One day before the camp was to open for the first time, I
was informed that a baby at the orphanage had died of Meningitis that may have been contagious. I spoke
with some of the administrative staff and was told that all of the other children had undergone thorough
tests and had tested negative, but there could be a risk. The next morning I met with the other camp
instructors and told them of the risk. Without hesitation, each one shrugged and said words to the effect
of, “OK, let’s go start camp.”
Two employees told me later that in their opinions, this baby did not have to die. They had both
reported the baby’s symptoms—trembling, poor appetite, fever--but the administration did not act until
more than a week after notification. By that time it was too late.
“Rechazados de los Rechazados”: gaps in treatment.
One day I was talking to the young psychologist who worked there. She had recently informed
me that more than 95% of the children tested MR. I couldn’t believe it; I knew a few of them had severe
disabilities, but most seemed like normal kids and a few seemed above average. I questioned the exam—
perhaps it was administered their first day, or wasn’t the valid, normed version. No, she explained the
process and she herself was surprised by the results, to the point where she brought the results to one of
her mentors. It turns out, MR classification is a phenomenon in some orphanages, probably due to the
psychological trauma these children have sustained.
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We continued talking about their schools and education and at one point she said, “You
understand these children are los rechazados.” This word translates as the scorned, rejected, unloved
people. I nodded. She wasn’t convinced I comprehended, and added emphasis, “They are los rechazados
de los rechazados.” I said I understood, but she motioned me to a corner, lowered her voice and
explained, “I mean here. In addition to their classmates, their teachers, and the community at large, they
are scorned here by the employees” (personal communication, January 2008).
La Granja: Closing gaps in self-esteem and income?
Once they reached the age of twelve, boys in the home were moved to La Granja. La Granja (tr.
The Farm) was privately run, but served boys who had been abandoned or abused, as well as adjudicated
youth. This was not an ideal mix in my opinion. Despite the problems at the orphanage, the boys all
dreaded the transfer to La Granja. One day transfer of about seven of them was expedited—apparently
while one custodian was in charge of 50 children and was occupied cleaning and feeding a couple of
babies, one of the older boys engaged in sexual activity with one of the girls.
I visited La Granja and was relatively impressed. The boys were excited to show me the working
farm and tell me everything they were learning. The director had been there for seventeen years and
seemed passionate about the place and the work. There was an on-site school. In addition to the normal
school subjects, the boys learned a variety of trades to prepare for reentry into society, including, culinary
arts, automobile repair, construction, and of course, farming.
Panamanian gaps in sum.
Comparing orphanages to schools seems ridiculous. Most orphanages, group homes and the like
are depressing places in whatever country they exist. Regardless, I think we can learn from extreme ends
of continuums. Furthermore, many of the students we refer to when we discuss the losing side of the gap
live with one parent or no parents (Welsh, 2009; Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2011). So, unfortunately,
perhaps the comparison is not as ridiculous as it seems. The boys seemed happier and healthier at La
Granja, and I credit that to three differences: 1) discipline was more strict, 2) they learned a lot, 3) health
care was better.
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In addition to the work at the orphanage, as parents and educators we got to know schools in
Panama pretty well. Panamanians with means sent their children to private schools. We sent our son to
the local public school for pre-K and Kindergarten. The school was a small pre-k-6 elementary school
serving poor rural Panamanians and indigenous children. The school had no computers. The school had
no children’s story books. The director of the school exhibited incompetence. The Panamanian
curriculum was questionable. However, my son’s teacher for those two years was one of the best teachers
I’ve seen anywhere in the world.
Our third year there, we switched him from the local public school to the larger Catholic school.
This school had a good computer lab, sports fields, an indoor gymnasium, and his first year there he had a
very good teacher. His second year there he was not so lucky. The teacher’s directions were unclear, her
homework assignments were oppressive, and she left him in the room with the class bully alone a couple
of times. It’s not computers, facilities and resources that make the difference in a student’s daily learning
experience—it is the teacher.
Panama’s performance on regional comparative assessments, e.g. the SERCE, is extremely
poor—they recently scored at or near the bottom on all the measured subjects (LLEC, 2008). This is
probably due to a combination of subpar teacher preparation, insufficient school organization and an
ineffective curriculum. Nonetheless, we would do well to note what seems to be effective there that is
lacking here in the US, namely, school uniforms and values education. As parents and educators we
appreciated both of those aspects of the system for our children.
Reading to Revolution: Discovering Structured Gaps
Between 2007 and 2010 three readings converged to convince me that indeed the gaps are
constructed. I had randomly picked up Confessions of an Economic Hitman for pleasure, and read it
while I was in Panama. A Panamanian colleague and friend became involved with the anti-dam
development movement in Panama. I passed the book along to him, as Panama and dam construction
were the topics of a few chapters.
In 2009 a student of mine who was a long-time special education teacher, gave me a copy of
Bello’s (1994) Dark Victory: The United States and Global Poverty. Reading this on the heels of
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Confessions of an Economic Hitman, was similar to reading this paper: first came the narrative case study
exploring how and why US macro-economic policy made the few rich richer and the rest poorer, then the
quantitative data describing the impacts of that policy. Bello (1994) succinctly defines structural
adjustment loans (SALs) used by the US, through the World Bank, to adjust other countries’ economies
to our liking. He then proceeds to describe the adjustment that Reaganomics achieved within US borders,
that being, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. More specifically, between 1983 and 1989, income
for the richest 1% grew by 63%, whereas, income for the bottom 60% declined during the same period (p.
95). In addition, by the end of the 1980s Blacks’ average income was less than 60% that of Whites, and
the unemployment rate for Blacks was more than double that for Whites. Furthermore, white males lived
seven years longer than their black counterparts on average (Bello, 1994, p. 97). Bello (1994) cites a
congressional report as stating that, by the end of the Reagan-Bush era, the US had become “the most
unequal of modern nations” (p. 97). Ferguson (2007) echos this association between Reagan and income
inequity, asserting, “It is no secret that economic opportunity for racial minorities was not a priority
during Ronald Reagan’s presidency” (p. 25). He supports this assertion with comparative occupational
data from the 1970s to the 1980s, specifically, in the 1970s there was no racial gap in young college
graduates likelihood to hold managerial and professional positions. Unfortunately, “by the late 1980s,
[blacks] were 13 percent less likely than young whites to be in these occupations” (p. 25).
Bello’s discussion of Keynesian policies and oligopolistic price fixing reminded me of
Munkirs (1985) The Transformation Of American Capitalism: From Competitive Market
Structures To Centralized Private Sector Planning, required reading for an undergraduate course in
economics. Munkirs (1985) brought theory that explained the phenomena presented in Perkins’ (2004)
narrative and Bello’s (1994) data.
In addition, reading Bello’s (1994) work while taking a course titled Social Justice reinforced a
cynical perspective of US policy and society. The assigned reading of Sen’s (1999) Development as
Freedom, cited data in line with the above-mentioned longevity gap between Blacks and Whites in the US
(p. 96-97). Furthermore, Sen (1999) documents US inequities and deficiencies worse than those of
developing countries, and concludes, “limits on governmental support for the ill and the poor are too
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EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
severe in the United States to be…acceptable in Europe, and so are the social commitments toward public
facilities varying from health care to educational arrangements” (p. 98). One of the other required texts
included a chapter by Gabbard (2009) that suggests that compulsory schooling alone precludes our school
system from the ability to achieve social justice.
The Data
The Fairfax High School (FHS) School Improvement Plan for 2010-2011 boasts very thin gaps
between any groups if the Standards of Learning assessments (SOLs) are used as the measure of
achievement. For example, on the math objective in 2009-2010 Blacks and Students With Disabilities
(SWD) had the lowest passing rate at a healthy 92%, with Whites having the highest at 98%. Blacks
narrowed that gap on the reading objective with 96% passing to Whites’ 100%. 90% of SWD passed the
reading objective. While it may be disconcerting to some that Blacks’ passing rate equaled that of SWD
on the math, and was below all other categories—Hispanics, Economically Disadvantaged and Limited
English Proficient—on both measures, whenever you get near a 5% differential, you are talking about
very few students. In fact, in 2010 SY 2009-2010 the 214 blacks only made up about 9% of Fairfax High
School’s population, thus, 5% of that number is about 11 students. Hence, if 4-5 more blacks have a
better day and pass next year, and 4-5 fewer whites pass, that gap closes. For summaries of the math and
reading measures as well as FHS demographics see Tables 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Moreover, note that
all groups have over a 90% passing rate. To be sure, passing these objectives should be a minimum goal;
nonetheless, passing rates over 90% are relatively healthy.
More significant gaps appear in other subject SOLs; specifically, in 2010 the pass rates on the
Geometry and Biology SOLs were 16.5% and 18.9% lower for African-American students than the FHS
population. However, 4% more African-Americans passed the chemistry SOL in 2010 than the FHS
population. Yet, the gaps become enormous canyons in two areas: AP and honors enrollment and the
percent of students with final grades of F. Seventy percent of Whites and 79% of Asians enrolled in AP
or honors classes in School Year 2010-2011. That same year, just 43% of African-Americans and 38% of
Hispanic students enrolled in those courses. Only 8% of White students and 9% of Asians received final
grades of F in SY 2009-2010, whereas, a whopping 26% of African-Americans and 19% of Hispanics
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
16
suffered final grades of F in the same year. Moreover, these gaps have persisted over the past three years:
“Although FHS has seen a significant reduction in the number of Fs issued as final grades, the percentage
of African-American students with a final grade of F has generally increased over the past 3 years”
(Goldfarb, 2011). Time under NCLB policy does not appear to correlate positively with some gaps.
Implications: The School’s Response
To the school’s—and Principal Goldfarb’s—credit, objective number one of the school
improvement plan states, “The FHS staff will improve academic performance for African-American
students” because longitudinal “SOL test results for students in the African-American subgroup reveal
that there is a…persistent gap in student achievement…between the general FHS student population and
African-Americans in most core courses” (Goldfarb, 2011).
In addition, the plan cites Ferguson’s (2007) research, and thus, suggests that teachers need strong
content knowledge, as well as ability to differentiate instruction and connect with students. In addition,
the plan suggests that based on Ferguson’s (2007) research teachers should encourage and motivate
students, provide complete explanations of assignments and be available to students outside of class time
(as cited by Goldfarb, 2011).
Are Parents to Blame? One Administrator’s Response
I asked one of the assistant principals, who we’ll call AP and who happens to be AfricanAmerican, what he believed caused these gaps. With no hesitation AP spit out, “Parents—low parental
expectations.” He further explained that, by and large, the African-Americans at this school did not suffer
from poverty; moreover, at least one parent usually had earned a college degree. Yet, these middle class
African-American parents with college degrees had low expectations for their children. They make
excuses for their children. Case in point, AP had been trying to coordinate a meeting between a parent
and her child’s teachers: she refused to miss work for the meeting. Her job trumped her son’s failing
biology for the second time. So he met with her on a Saturday.
Recalling her demands on his time, AP notes that, while she couldn’t meet with her son’s
classroom teachers, she could pick him up from track practice “in a fully loaded Range Rover” (personal
communication, July 14, 2011). He acknowledges that it’s not just the African-American parents who
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
17
have low expectations—rather, he believes the whole school has low expectations. However, as AP
quips, “when everyone else has a cold, we [African-Americans], have pneumonia” (personal
communication, July 14, 2011).
Suburban Gaps: Achievement for Many—Others Left Behind
The July issue of the City of Fairfax school newsletter, City School Close Up, printed the
following quote:
Fairfax High Principal Dave Goldfarb Salutes the Class of 2011 "Graduation is my
favorite day of the year because all of the school community's energy channeled into our
students' learning and growth climaxes with a huge feeling of accomplishment and
happiness," Goldfarb said.
Yet, in a meeting with Goldfarb and other administrators, AP declared, “My heart sank when I thought
about some people we gave diplomas to. What do they know? What are they prepared to do? Do they
know why we have night and day?” The others around the table—including Mr. Goldfarb--did not
respond.
AP resigned himself to the fact that some people—in this case a group of underachieving
African-American students and their parents--are simply more comfortable in the middle. Or, to
paraphrase AP, not all students want to go to UVA.
Gap in Advanced Classes and Fs: So what?
We can close gaps. Indeed, we were closing them through the 1980s as documented by Ferguson
(2009), and we have closed them in many individual schools as noted by Chenoweth (2007). However, I
don’t believe we should focus our resources on closing these particular gaps, because, first, the process of
attempting to close gaps may perpetuate them—even if we succeed at the school level, and second,
sameness is an ill-conceived objective. Moreover, I do not believe that closing those gaps at Fairfax high
school would disrupt class, rather it would maintain it. However, before discussing what I see as one
solution to the class gap problem, let me address the above reasons for doing nothing about the gaps at
Fairfax High School.
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
18
One reason to do nothing regarding the race gap in AP and honors classes is in the interest of
following the Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm. By focusing attention on the race gap in this area we
may perpetuate and exacerbate the gap. This may occur in part from the Pygmalian effect (Yatvin, 2009).
The more data that teachers look at highlighting this gap, the more they believe the gap exists. This may
have the unintended result of lowering expectations. Delpit (1995) describes this process eloquently:
Teacher education usually focuses on research that links failure and socioeconomic
status, failure and cultural difference, and failure and single-parent households. It is hard
to believe that these children can possibly be successful after their teachers have been so
thoroughly exposed to so much negative indoctrination. (p. 172)
One of the findings to come out of the research on gaps, critical race theory and the like, is that teacher
expectations matter (Mathews, 2009; Ferguson, 2007; Yatvin, 2009). To borrow again from Delpit
(1995), “When teachers do not understand the potential of the students they teach, they will underteach
them no matter what the methodology” (p. 175). Hence, the last thing we want to do is inadvertently
lower expectations of the potential of our students.
Perhaps worse than maintaining or increasing teachers’ bigotry, focusing on race-based gap data
potentially lowers student self-efficacy, self-esteem and allows for stereotype threat. According to a
report by Welsh (2009), Superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools Sherman ordered principals to
post charts of test-score results by race for all to see. Welsh, a career teacher in Alexandria relates:
One mother told me that a black fifth-grader at Cora Kelly Magnet School said that
"whoever sees that sign will think I am stupid." A fourth-grade African American girl
there looked at the sign and said to a friend: "That's not me." When black and white
parents protested that impressionable young children don't need such information,
administrators accused them of not facing up to the problem. Only when the local
NAACP complained did Sherman have the charts removed.
In addition to the obvious effects on self-esteem that poor performance can have, stereotype threat can
send achievement spiraling lower. Ferguson (2007) reports that the research demonstrates that “fear of
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
19
confirming a negative stereotype interferes with concentration and distracts students from doing their
best” (p. 286).
This may be the motivation behind Ferguson’s (2007) efforts to shift the conversation to
socioeconomic status (SES) and or skills, rather than race, though he and Delpit (1995) seem to agree that
“membership in a particular group” should not predict “anything of consequence in our society” (p. 7).
So, how do you change teacher expectations? One way is to indoctrinate them with counterfactual
exemplars to the race-based gap data. Prove the soft bigotry wrong through student performance
engendered by Marva Collins’ work, KIPP, Promise Academy and the “unexpected schools” described in
Chenoweth (2009).
Of course, we have tried educating low-expectations out of teachers before with Multi-Cultural
Education and then culturally responsive education curricula. Finally, former president Bush
implemented NCLB to combat, “the soft bigotry of low expectations” (Bush, 2004). In other words, post
attempting to educate teachers regarding race, culture and their own assumptions, we decided to force the
issue by demanding equal outcomes—regardless of equal expectations. As Noguera (2009) wrote, “…the
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law of 2001 effectively forced states and schools to move beyond racist
assumptions about the nature of intelligence by requiring evidence that all children were learning” (as
cited in Chenoweth, 2009, p. vi).
Here we are 10 years later and 84% of schools have failed to attain the objectives of NCLB. As
Noguera confirms, “…despite its prodding and pressuring, NCLB did not succeed in generating
widespread educational progress, much less in closing the nation’s achievement gap” (as cited in
Chenoweth, 2009, p. vi). Indeed, I fear that we may have exacerbated the problem. That is, this policy
may have perpetuated low expectations and worse by constantly holding the data in front of our faces.
The question we will never be able to answer is: without NCLB would progress have been better?
Furthermore, to focus resources on narrowing the AP/honors class enrollment gap overvalues
advanced classes: do we really want a society full of AP English graduates? It’s analogous to the focus on
reading and math. The curriculum has narrowed to the two areas we assess: reading and math (personal
communication Gina Amenta and Shannon Butler, July, 2011; Srikantaiah, 2009; Chenoweth, 2009, p.
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
20
100). Coincidentally, these are two areas in which whites have been able to demonstrate supremacy
according to the sanctioned district and state assessments. Now, one could argue that honors classes are
broader: they include sciences, history, etc. Still, you are talking about creating a society of academics, or
at the very least, a society where each race is proportionally represented in academia. Still boring.
Personally I prefer a mix of abilities, professions, and interests. A number of futurists suggest that to
compete in the global economy everyone must be college graduates, have five minds, and communicate
and think expertly (Gardner, 2008; Murnane, 2010; MetLife, 2011). That, however, is a dangerous,
unsustainable society to construct. In short, sameness is an ill-conceived objective.
At no small risk of being misunderstood, let’s presume for a moment that there are some innate
genetic differences between races and genders. Now let’s pretend for a moment that we value kinesthetic
ability more than reading and writing ability--and indeed if you compare professional athlete salaries to
those of professional editors and writers perhaps we do. In fact average salaries for professional
basketball, baseball and football players all surpass a million dollars (USA Today, 2011a; USA Today,
2011b and USA Today, 2011c); while average salaries for writers, 65, 960 (BLS, 2010), and editors, 49,
990 (BLS, 2008) are not much greater than the national average income of 50, 221 (Census, 2010).
Furthermore, blacks are overrepresented in football and basketball as well as other sports (Healy and
O’Brien, 2007, p. 48). The Williams sisters have dominated women’s tennis and Tiger Woods men’s
golf. Researchers have identified physiological and genetic differences that give blacks an edge in some
sports (Healy and O’Brien, 2007, p. 48). Yet, the last time I recall hearing a public statement regarding
implications of a race-based gap between African-Americans and whites in athletics, the commentator,
Jimmy the Greek, was villainized and fired. Imagine forcing everyone to take 90 minutes per day of PE
and get extra-help in basketball and football skills if they performed poorly in those sports. That sounds
crazy. But gaps where African-Americans are on the losing end? Those we need to close “whatever it
takes” (Anchondo as cited by Chenoweth, 2009, p. 107; principal of Gainesville Elementary School in
Georgia as cited by Bush, 2004). We need to parade African-Americans on stages to declare they are not
the problem, but the solution. We need to publish books and articles ad nauseum that present statistics
demonstrating African-American inferiority according to reading and math assessments. Yet, we don’t
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
21
dare identify unathletic whites to talk about how we need to solve their deficiencies relative to blacks.
And then we wonder why the so-called gap persists.
Regarding the gap in Fs—this is a problem that will be partially addressed by the below
solution—though not in Fairfax high school. West Potomac tried a no F policy, according to the
Washington Post, to help struggling students (George, November 14, 2010). It was rescinded a week
later (George, November 19, 2010). That’s one possible option: try to implement a no F policy—similar
to the concept behind NCLB—if we can’t intrinsically change teacher expectations and associated
practices through multi-cultural and culturally responsive education and professional diversity
development, then we’ll try to force the outcomes. I could also recommend more late-buses for students
who want to study after school and a stronger reading recovery program. However, even if we managed
to decrease the F gap, I don’t think we’d ultimately disrupt class.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not presuming nor suggesting that African-Americans are innately
poor at reading and mathematics. Moreover, we (society) have helped to ensure the gaps exist: from the
nurture side, who knows what a couple of hundred years of interrupted and sub-standard schooling
combined with involuntary presence and systemic oppression can do to cognitive abilities? I can also
acknowledge the value of the 12 step program, beginning with acknowledging the problem.
However, we’ve acknowledged the problem long enough—NCLB’s time is up, and that did not
get us far. Before moving on, at risk of redundancy, I do believe through certain strategic thrusts, we
could close the gaps between races in reading, math, honors classes and Fs. In fact, if I were to suggest a
solution to those gaps, it would look something like this:
1. A strong, detailed curriculum at least at the school if not at the district, state and national
level. (As evidenced by numerous cases documented by Chenoweth (2009) e.g. the State of
Massachussetts, Steubenville, Success for All; and every other country on earth as per Tucker,
2011; personal communication, Gary Galluzzo, July 2011)
2. More time in school (as evidenced by KIPP, and most other countries on earth).
3. Quality teachers who know their job and love the children (Tucker, 2011; Sawchuk, 2011).
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
22
4. Holistic school buildings that provide for all basic needs: health care, nutrition, clothing,
shelter, etc. (e.g. Promise Academy, SEED)
5. As much community/parent involvement as possible (e.g. Noguera & Wing, 2006; Ferguson,
2007).
Indeed, our above-mentioned charter school plan offered just this—and more. We proposed a
year-round boarding school, with three meals per day, uniforms, and a very detailed parallel curriculum
for college and vocational preparation.
Shifting Paradigms: The Other and the American Nightmare
Unfortunately, I’m now convinced that--even had we been approved—our charter school would
not have disrupted class. For a similar reason, I feel disinclined to suggest solutions to the gaps at FHS:
ultimately, even if we closed those gaps, this achievement would go the way of Head Start and KIPP
achievements. The benefits of Head Start end quickly (Klein, 2004). Just 33% of KIPP alumnae graduate
from college (Mathews, 2011). A. and E. figured it out: even if they graduated from high school and
went to college, they would not get a dream job. Certainly not one that could lead to attainment of the
American Dream. They exemplified Ogbu’s (2003) finding that many African-American students do not
believe that school prepares them for a successful career.
Like bell hooks I long for the day when we stop speaking of the Other. When we no longer need
to categorize humans. When teachers take an individual student where they are and get them to the next
level while engendering a love of learning and helping to discover and nurture their talents. Racial
mixing may be the only way to begin to force this, and intermarriage is on the rise (Cushner, 2009, p. 15).
As per some of the above discussion, I’d also like us to shift away from sameness, narrowing
curricula, and future job opportunities. I hope we react against the push for an all academically inclined,
service-oriented economy, and reevaluate the benefits of supporting the variety of vocations such as, local
artisans, farmers, plumbers, electricians, butchers, bakers and candle-stick makers. You can marry WEB
Dubois and Booker T. Washington: our society may sustain this variety--it won’t support 7 billion
scholars. Unfortunately, paradigms don’t shift easily.
The Solution: Disrupting Class with Sustainable Holistic Communities
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
23
As a BHS student said, “I’m not so much about empowering the school. I’m more about
empowering …my people” (as cited in Noguera & Wing, 2006, p. 253). I’ve decided that my people are
los rechazados de los rechazados: the homeless, fatherless, poverty-stricken, drug-addicted, mostly
brown-skinned, children and parents who drop-out, get Fs and do not often enroll in AP classes. So, my
new solution promises past college: a self-sustaining community that provides academic and vocational
classes to entire families if needed and in-house jobs and careers. With aspects of CPDC, Promise
Academy, La Granja, Warren-Wilson College, Maya Angelou-See Forever and Covenant house as loose
examples, build self-sustaining holistic communities (SHCs) in the worst neighborhoods in the most
devastated cities in the country, such as Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore and Washington DC. The
population we serve will be the homeless, CPS cases, foster care, to wit, the students who, when they get
counted, typically get counted as the gap children: Latin-American and African-American students who
get Fs and perform below average on reading and math assessments. The following services will be
provided: 1. residences for children and/or entire families; 2. on-site health care services 3. high-security
alcohol and drug-rehab/mental health facilities; 3. mixed-age secondary courses; 4. day-care; 5. afterschool care 6. all food service; 7. job training 8. job placement.
An SHC facility will provide residences for students living in foster care, group homes, or on the
streets. Residential schools have a long history: the first “public” schools were actually private boarding
schools in England (the kind that Roald Dahl writes of in Boy). Recently residential charters serving
similar populations, such as SEED, have sprung up. In addition, families may live in an SHC facility as
needed. Through my wife’s work I’ve become more aware of the number of near-homeless, families that
live in rooms in others homes and frequently move. They’re not quite in shelters or the woods, but the
mother and children—and mother’s boyfriend(s)—will often live together in one room, paying small rent
for that privilege. Similar to what Ware/Steubenville called the river-hoppers.
Promise Academy has discovered the need to provide more comprehensive health care for its
students. Healthcare was an issue at the orphanage I worked at in Panama. Children suffered chronic
lice, open sores, and a baby died of meningitis, perhaps unnecessarily. Sen (1999) noted that the two
investments that lead to improved economic development are education and health. Those will be our
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
24
two main thrusts. Given the population we plan to serve, one sector of the residential living facility will
be high security in order to provide residence for those suffering from mental illness or addiction that may
make them harmful to themselves or others. Referrals from government agencies as well as outreach,
similar to Covenant House outreach programs, will be used to identify and provide services for this
population.
The general educational objectives of our program will be similar to that of the charter school we
proposed years ago. First, we will work to ensure that all students pass the standardized district and/or
state assessments in reading and math at least at the basic level. Hence, virtually all will get to at least an
eighth grade level. Those more interested in academics will take integrated humanities and/or STEM
(science, technology, and math) courses in mixed age groups based on ability level. Ability level will be
determined first by normed, valid assessments.
In order to make this possible for young parents, we will provide day-care, as per the Head Start
model. In addition, both the babies and students can receive after-school care programs, and for some this
will be mandatory. Speaking of for some, yes, each resident and student will have an IEP, partly based on
a battery of valid, normed assessments, ranging from learning style, to job skills assessments. CPDC
provides its residents with similar day care and job skills assessment programs.
Job training begins with the on-site work. From building maintenance to program marketing,
from laundry service to food service, our residents will take care of themselves and each other.
Moreover, most services will be available to the public. The objective is three-fold:
1. eventually keep costs down and possibly become self-sustaining;
2. engender a sense of pride, agency and ownership of the program in the residents;
3. teach a multitude of vocations and careers through supervised practice
Hence, our residential cafeteria becomes a diner open to the public. Likewise, our laundry service gets
done in a laundromat. Our art works and poetry readings are available to the public in our coffee house.
Some of the basic concepts here can be seen at work in the Marriot Charter, La Granja and WarrenWilson College.
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
25
I shared Geoffry Canada’s vision of Harlem with my wife. Hundreds of Harlem residents
walking around talking about their university experiences. My fear is that too many of those will find
themselves under or unemployed. Thus, in our community, if we can’t find a job for you, you will have
one with us in our food service, health clinic and other industries that our students and residents decide to
start.
Many researchers, theorists, educators and practitioners have come to the conclusion that neither
teachers nor schools alone will be able to close the gap (Zigler as cited in Klein, 2004; Rothstein, 2004;
Coleman, 1987; Barton & Coley, 2010; Hopkins as cited in Welsh, 2009; Richert, Donahue & LaBoskey,
2009). They’ve determined there’s no simple singular fix. Rather, closing achievement gaps will require
“ a holistic orientation” and “systemic transformation” (Richert, Donahue & LaBoskey, 2009, p. 650) of
“social capital,” (Coleman, 1987, p. 38) “social class characteristics,” (Rothstein, 2004, p. 6) “families,
neighborhoods, and a variety of economic and social circumstances” (Zigler as cited in Klein, 2004, p. 9).
“Those who know schools know that [their] services are largely inadequate; there are too many poor
children in America whose most basic needs—food, shelter, and health care—are largely unmet”
(Noguera & Wing, 2006, p. ix.)
Addressing these problems is difficult, as Barton and Coley (2010) warn:
More difficult, however, is identifying approaches to uplift whole neighborhoods in terms
of their economic and social capital, their school quality, and their recreational and health
infrastructures. It may be that we don’t know how to do this, or we don’t have the public
resources now to do so, or we lack the political will. The Great Society had its “Model
Cities” efforts, or at least, it had the rhetoric. A counterpart would be “Model
Neighborhoods,” perhaps through combined public, private, and nonprofit efforts. The
scale of efforts that would be necessary to make a difference is formidable and the related
knowledge base limited. (p. 37)
From my experience starting and operating restaurants, as well as programs like music camps and
Professional Development Schools, if you think small, the scale of efforts required to get started is much
less formidable. Start small and rely on organic growth. Though, sometimes circumstances and
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
26
economies of scale may make it possible to start on a relatively large scale. In one city, you may adopt a
failing public housing project and begin with a substantial number of residents, in another you may begin
with one small row house and one drug addict. 105, 000 solutions and effective nationwide programs can
be married. It will be the program briefly outlined above applied to the individual neighborhood. Every
other country manages this marriage of national curriculum to individual and individual localities. The IB
curriculum manages it on an international scale. The above solution encompasses more than a
curriculum, nonetheless, the idea is repeat the model, like Covenant House and CPDC.
Barton and Coley (2010) recommend we close the achievement gap “with all deliberate thought,
care, and speed (p. 38). This month The Washington Post had a few interesting op-ed pieces that relate:
with the headline “The Rise of the Zombie Liberals,” MacGillis points out that liberals do well on
individual rights, e.g. gay marriage, but poorly on collective responsibility. He points to the fact that
“Income inequality has soared to levels not seen since the Gilded Age and the Roaring twenties…” (p. B
1). Speaking of collective responsibility, under the title “Lighting the Housing Bonfire,” George Will
blames the economic crisis on assistance to poor people to buy homes (blame the poor—not the real
estate speculators, moguls and slum lords; Will apparently is a fan of Old Man Potter from It’s a
Wonderful Life). In “Welfare state, or collapse” Furstenberg (2011) tries to help us learn from our
history, specifically the labor struggles of the 1890s, and he asserts, “The Gilded Age plutocrats who first
acceded to a social welfare system and state regulations did not do so from the goodness of their hearts.
They did so because the alternatives seemed so much more terrifying” (p. A 13). I need about five years
of deliberation and development to implement the first SHC. By that time perhaps we will have
eradicated poverty and associated problems. But I fear the disparity and problems—the gaps—will get
worse before they improve. In the meantime I will probably at least suggest to our principal at Fairfax HS
that we strengthen the reading recovery program.
Conclusion
This paper contains stories—mostly war stories—“because stories help us visualize and talk
about new ideas” (Cushner, 2009). In order to move the commonly accepted paradigm of the global
economy, perhaps we need more stories of a world in which there is no variety in talents nor careers: all
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
27
members of society are readers and mathematicians. Or perhaps, as per Murnane (2010) we will all be
Expert Thinkers and Complex communicators. Or, as per Gardener (2009), we’ll all have five minds.
First, the sameness would be phenomenally boring. Second, on a global community level, unsustainable.
However, I don’t think my rhetoric and stories will shift the paradigm stuck on the constructed need for
academic, intellectual, service-oriented skills to compete in the global economy.
Similarly I fear bell hooks and I will be waiting a long time for people to stop talking about the
Other (hooks, 1990, pp. 151-152 as cited in Fine, 1994). I’m hoping soon we take students, regardless of
their ideocultures, from where they are to a level up and toward where they want to go. Otherness is a
hard paradigm to melt.
Having conceded to those paradigms, what place does my narrative construct for me in Fairfax
High School? I have, in the past, made one or two recommendations to the principal, and as mentioned
above, I could—and I will--suggest more late buses and a stronger reading recovery program.
However, as this paper has repeated: I don’t think closing F gaps, nor honors enrollment gaps, at
Fairfax High School will disrupt class. That leaves unfinished business. How do you help African-
Americans keep the faith in light of the fact that “even when you hold IQ constant, the
percentage of black youths who are unemployed is twice as high as the rate for the IQ-matched
whites,” (Bruner, 1996, p. 75). Art Rolnick, claims “Research shows that by targeting at-risk children
you get the highest rates of return” (Klein, 2004, p. 17). Perfect serendipity—those are the children I
enjoy working with the most.
The story above, has helped me visualize and discuss a plan to raise communities—that hopefully
expand into neighborhoods, then cities then society—from the bottom up. The SHC concept extends
Canada’s pipeline to post-college jobs and careers. I want to seal the people that need it most into that
pipeline.
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
28
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EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
Notes
1
This is not an HSRB approved research study. The terms mixed methods, naturalistic narrative inquiry
and grounded theory are used very loosely. Nonetheless, the conceptual frameworks provided by those
methods guided the thought process for the writing of the paper. Moreover, some of the processes such as
coding and theoretical sampling, while not performed with the rigor of an actual study, were nonetheless
applied. The second and third rounds of revision through coding the anecdotes and recoding including
the use of multiple independent coders (my wife) reduced this paper from its original 50+ pages to its
current length.
33
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
Table 1
Annual Measurable Objective for Mathematics is 79
Mathematics Performance
Student Subgroup
All Students
Black
Hispanic
White
Students with Disabilities (SWD)
Economically Disadvantaged
Limited English Proficient (LEP)
% of
Students
Passed
97
92
97
98
92
95
96
% of
Students
Tested
100
99
100
100
98
100
100
% of
Students
Not Tested
0
1
0
0
2
0
0
Note. From Fairfax County Public Schools, School Improvement Plan 2010-2011, Fairfax High School,
Cluster VII, Principal David Goldfarb.
34
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
Table 2
Annual Measurable Objective for Reading/Language Arts is 81
English Performance
Student Subgroup
All Students
Black
Hispanic
White
Students with Disabilities (SWD)
Economically Disadvantaged
Limited English Proficient (LEP)
% of
Students
Passed
99
96
98
100
90
99
97
% of
Students
Tested
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
% of
Students
Not Tested
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Note. From Fairfax County Public Schools, School Improvement Plan 2010-2011, Fairfax High School,
Cluster VII, Principal David Goldfarb.
35
EXAMINING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
Table 3
Fairfax High School Ethnic Demographics for School Year 2009-2010
Ethnicity
#
%
Asian or Pacific Islander
571
24.37
Black (not of Hispanic origin)
214
9.13
Hispanic
376
16.05
White (not of Hispanic origin)
1,046
44.64
Other
136
5.80