Colorado is one of just four states where black students have gained ground on their white peers on eighth-grade math tests over the past two decades, according to a U.S. Department of Education report released Tuesday.
But despite that sign of progress, the achievement gap between the races in reading and math, both in Colorado and nationally, is still wide. The disparity in academic scores remains one of the most vexing problems in American education, fueling reform efforts across the country.
“We could crow a little about this news, but it still isn’t good enough,” said Jo O’Brien, Colorado’s assistant commissioner of standards and assessment. “The distance still between all populations of color is not where we would like it to be.”
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has set a goal of halving the achievement gap in the next decade. And the legislature last year allocated $1.8 million to develop a pilot program to assist six school districts in closing achievement gaps associated with race and/or income.
In Colorado, the gap generally mirrors the national average in all but eighth-grade math, according to the national study, which examined average scores by black and white students in grades four and eight on a series of federally administered tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The NAEP tests in math and reading are administered every two to four years.
A separate report will be released in the fall comparing Latino and white children.
Making math progress
Colorado joined Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas as the only states where black student scores grew faster than white student scores to narrow the math gap for eighth grade between 1990 and 2007.
In 1990, black students in Colorado scored 35 points lower than white students on the eighth-grade math test. In 2007, that gap had fallen to 24 points.
Scores by black students rose from 238 to 272 (34 points) and white students rose from 273 to 296 (23 points) during that period. The test has a 500-point scale.
O’Brien said Colorado has more rigorous math standards than the rest of the nation and that the state is ranked 10th in the country in math.
“The more clarity and higher expectations that we convey, . . . it raises all the boats in the harbor,” she said.
Paul Teske, dean of the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Public Affairs, said the NAEP tests are difficult to interpret.
“It is so fine-grained that it is really hard to figure out what it means,” Teske said. “I’m sure the (Colorado Department of Education) could point to reforms, but to be honest, people are just guessing.”
Narrowing gap in 4th
In fourth-grade math, Colorado’s black students narrowed the gap with their white peers just marginally — from 28 to 26 points between 1992 and 2007. The national average is a gap of 26 points between whites and blacks.
But the reading gap has grown between Colorado’s black and white fourth-graders. It was 21 points in 1992 and 24 in 2007.
Colorado’s eighth-grade reading scores have scarcely changed between 1998, when they were first measured, and 2007. The gap between the races remains at 22 points.
Nationally, the report showed reading and math scores are improving among black students and scores have improved for white students — leaving the achievement gap between the races relatively unchanged for 17 years regardless of extensive reform efforts.
On average, the gap narrowed by seven points from 1992 to 2007, so that black students scored about 28 points behind white students on the 500-point scale.
“What we see is something we have been aware of for 100 years: No matter what part of the country, there is a gap between black and white students,” said Warren Smith, vice president of the Washington State Board of Education and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the administration of the national assessment. “We are trying to address this problem and fix it. This is the kind of information that helps us start our work.”
Problems before school
Research has shown that education problems begin even before school for minorities and children of poverty. Factors include low birth weight and poor nutrition.
Minority children and those raised in poor households are exposed to more television, don’t read as much, aren’t talked to as much, and have less involvement with parents and adults — all correlations to poor educational performance later in life.
“A family that has income typically has opportunity to travel and to participate in cultural and social activities that gives them more exposure to the world,” O’Brien said.
Comparing the NAEP data with Colorado’s own assessment, the Colorado Student Assessment Program, the gaps are even more pronounced — especially in Denver Public Schools, whose student population is 77 percent minority.
For example, in Denver, 55 percent of white eighth-graders were proficient at math on the 2008 CSAP, compared with 17 percent of blacks and 17 percent of Latinos.
The nearly 40-point proficiency gap between black and white students is a chasm that grows wider with each higher grade.
“Closing the achievement gap is just absolute and fundamental to our success,” said DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg. “If you don’t close the gap, you are condemning the vast majority of your students and therefore your city to a future of second-class economic citizenship.”
Reforms statewide and nationwide have not been aggressive enough, Boasberg said.
“We need to be much more focused on how we ensure that we have effective school leaders and effective teachers in our highest poverty schools,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
