Achievement Gap Widens For NYC Students Of Color: Report

NEW YORK CITY, NY — Gaps between white students' test scores and those of their black and Hispanic peers grew across New York City schools over the past two years, according to a national report released Tuesday.

The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results, known as the "Nation's Report Card," found that the achievement gaps in math and reading scores increased from 2015 to 2017, with the biggest change in fourth-grade math scores.

"Today’s NAEP results show that we are not where we need to be on math education," the city's Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said in a statement.

"We are immediately increasing professional development supports for elementary math. We are also undertaking a thorough review of schools that are doing well so that we can apply successful strategies across the city."

Across the city, the number of fourth- and eighth-graders scoring at or above proficiency in math and reading remained relatively the same in the NAEP results, but the proficiency gap grew in almost every category.

The assessment showed that 48 percent of white fourth-graders were proficient in math compared with just 16 percent of black students. That's a gap of 32 percentage points, up from 27 in 2015. The gap in reading proficiency increased to 32 percentage points from 30 percentage points.

The fourth-grade gaps between white and Hispanic students increased to 31 percent percentage points in math, up from 21, but decreased by a percentage point in reading, from 30 to 29 percent, according to the NAEP.

"Unfortunately, New York has only widened the achievement gap over the last two years," Eva Moskowitz, CEO of the city's polarizing charter school Success Academy, said in a statement. "A student of color in New York City is less than half as likely to have been taught to read or do math as a white student."

According to the data, the gaps increased from 33 percentage points to 35 between white and black eighth-graders in math and from 31 to 32 percentage points in reading. It remained at 28 percentage points between white and Hispanic students in math but increased from 24 to 28 in reading.

The NAEP started in the 1990s and gets administered every two years to fourth and eighth-grade students across the country, the Washington Post reported. They are seen as a benchmark for educators on how well school systems are doing.

The city's Department of Education said that NAEP changes between 2015 and 2017 are mostly statistically insignificant and the city still outperformed other large cities in eighth-grade math and fourth-grade reading scores.

The agency said it is planning several initiatives to improve the fourth-grade math scores, including a new module for early math instruction, math-focused mentorships for new teachers and focus groups in schools with high math achievement to share their practices.

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