I really do hate my permanent residence in the reality-based community, but at least half of the achievement gap that exists between black and white students - the fact that the average black 12th grader performs at about the 16th percentile of the white distribution (a gap of about 1 standard deviation)- cannot possibly be attributed to the K-12 schools. Why? The average black student enters kindergarten testing at about the
25 percentile of the white distribution in math (a gap of .663 standard deviations), and the
35th percentile of the white distribution in reading (a gap of .4 standard deviations). "Squeezing teachers," "dealing with teachers who don't teach," or "holding teachers feet to the fire," I'm sorry to say, are not going to address that gap. And between kindergarten and 12th grade,
kids are only in school 22% of their waking hours. It turns out that
poor students' slower rate of learning in the summer plays a significant role in increasing existing gaps.
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