Dr. Camika Royal explains here that the term “achievement gap” is offensive. She says that the comparison between whites and African Americans is inherently demeaning to the latter and ignores the reasons for what it claims to address.
Use the term “opportunity gap” or “wealth gap.” But, please, she says, stop using the term “achievement gap.”
My thoughts, Dr. Royal: This phrase (“the achievement gap”) is used cynically by self-proclaimed “reformers” who have no genuine interest in closing the opportunity gap or the wealth gap. In fact, if you mention the causes of test score differences, they will accuse you of making excuses. They don’t want to talk about poverty or segregation. They don’t want to hear anything about causes, only about test scores gaps. They will point to schools that get high test scores by operating as boot camps. They say that black children need a “different” kind of education, an education where they are taught to obey, to conform, to listen in silence, and to do as they are told without question.
They think that days on end of test prep is the right kind of education for black children, but not for their own.
Until the Wall Street guys, the high-tech titans, and the foundation moguls demand that poor children get the same quality of education that they want for their own children, with experienced teachers, small classes, excellent facilities, ample resources, and a rich curriculum, I can’t take seriously their talk about “closing the gap,” no matter which adjective it takes.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I couldn’t agree more. I prefer the “Wealth Gap”.
Been ranting for years that “student achievement” is a backwards way of describing/looking at the teaching and learning process.
Thought I was going to get into trouble at last year’s district professional development day where one presenter presents to the entire gym full of teachers. She invited comments. I finally raised my hand and said “You know if you would talk about student learning instead of student achievement I might be more receptive to what you have to say.” Needless to say I got a lot of dirty looks from the other teachers from the other schools. The looks from my fellow buildig teachers was “There’s Swacker and his crazy comments again” (I’m considered a crazy old Spanish teacher by many (especially the young ones who have to buy into the testing mania to keep their jobs) in my building (no wonder he’s crazy he speaks Spanish, eh).
“They say that black children need a “different” kind of education, an education where they are taught to obey, to conform, to listen in silence, and to do as they are told without question.”
This is the most disturbing aspect of education today. This occurs not only in charters but some public schools. Try that in the burbs and see what happens.
Where are the civil rights advocates?
I agree one hundred percent that “achievement gap” is an example of “framing” that begs the question. It is an advantage gap. “Savage inequalities” described it better.
In my discipline people often refer to wage gaps, say between men and women. Would the same argument apply?
Please explain how these two things are remotely analogous (other than both having the word “gap” in them).
The idea that saying there is a gap between two demographic groups that some might attribute to characteristics of the lower scoring (or earning) groups give the two statements a similar flavor.
“Test score gap” is more apropriate and specific. Part of the offensiveness of “achievement gap” is that it equates higher test scores with achievement when it is more usually a result of having chosen parents well.
I think test score gap would be fine, but it was not one of the suggested alternatives. I would find wealth gap to be confusing because you might want to talk about the actual wealth gap between demographic groups, not scores on exams.
“They say that black children need a “different” kind of education, an education where they are taught to obey, to conform, to listen in silence, and to do as they are told without question.”
And all minority and low income children.
Beyond disturbing.
Can’t you hare the carnival barker now…
“Come one come all, step right up and see the marvel…
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen; Right here…minority and low income children…
Quiet!
Walking with their hands behind their backs!
Staring passively at a computer screen for hours on end.
You wont believe your eyes!
Not a complaint or peep out of them!
Come one, come all, step right up…”
Sick
“Quality Gap” seems clear enough …
or “Unequal Provision”, if they try to twist that …
I agree “new language” more accurate and respectful language needs to be developed to address many of our inequities within the educational systems. It’s not just an opportunity gap either. We lived 12 years in a white affluent town and 10 in a poor diverse town…they treat the kids differently. In the poor diverse town disrespect towards our children was daily and common AND if you spoke up ….watch out. The lash back was destructive and pointed. The attitude towards our children in urban areas (and towards parents) was one of disrespect and oppression. It was palpable.
I’m glad someone else has noticed that. I live in a poor town which is basically across the street from an affluent town (both suburbs of Chicago) and the difference in how kids are treated seems pretty stark to me. But when I mention it (in either place) people act like I’m crazy.
I suggest everyone interested in this issue read the AERA presidential address of Gloria Ladson-Billings on the “education debt” which you can find here: http://tinyurl.com/bfg7ewe
I used my parapros as “enforcers” when I taught special education in a low income, minority community. They were very strict and what would be considered verbally abusive in a more affluent community. If I had followed their lead, the students would have had me for dinner. As an old white lady, I had to earn their trust. Good cop, bad cop let me reach them. In time, they knew I had their back, and they had mine. In that environment, the “achievement gap” was mine, but without considering their disabilities, I soon understood why they struggled in the classroom. Many of them were ESL students and were far from literate in either language. Their lives certainly had not provided the same “window to the world” that is a given in more affluent communities. On canned tests, the language of the directions was frequently beyond them, and the content, more often than not, was foreign to them. But they were warm, caring, curious and fun (as well as all the other things teenagers can be), and I miss them more than you can imagine.
Dr. Kelly calls the “so called achievement gap”, cumulative micro inequities.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
“Poverty Gap” is a valid term. “DNA Gap” is also a valid, though socially unacceptable, term.
Poverty Gap has a technical meaning in economics.
This is good bridge building with a TFA veteran who still involved with TFA. I do think the phrase wealth gap is confusing, so would go with test score gap.
Hess wrote an interesting piece on the effects of hyper-focusing on closing the gap: http://www.nationalaffairs.com/doclib/20110919_Hess.pdf
Amazingly enough, I have been seeing a commercial from the National Assn. of Realtors that states, “Owning a home contributes to higher self-esteem and better test scores.” Thanks, N.A.R., for putting it in less complicated and more business-boosting terms (for Realtors); it’s an offshoot of what educators have been saying about income levels accounting for achievement levels.There you have it!
Gee, students with disabilities cross all races & income levels. Sorry, but I believe ‘achievement’ gap is just fine.
Actually, disabilities occur far more often in children of the poor because of factors related to poverty – poor maternal health/prenatal care, fetal alcohol syndrome, children born addicted to drugs, HIV/AIDS, abuse/trauma, malnutrition, lack of stimulation, lack of attachment, etc. Children of the poor suffer disadvantages relative to children of the rich from day one and the gap only widens by the time kids get to school.
The consequences of having any disability vary greatly – from diagnosis to intervention to outcome.
Measures don’t mean anything unless they measure something important, something we truly care about.
If we view our society as a living organism instead of a board game or a casino then the only gap that matters is the gap between our current state and the states of healthy functioning that we can envision in our ideals and that with luck we have actually manged to approximate in the past. The only measures that matter are the measures that tell us the difference between reality and our feasible idelas, and the only policies that matter are the policies that tell us how to close that gap.
The purpose of inquiry is to discover the properties of reality, the reality that cannot be denied, and the purpose of education is to embody society with the knowledge it needs to live and thrive in the world as it really exists.
If the tests we give young learners do not contribute to that end, if indeed they get in the way of that goal, then they are useless and worse than useless.
“If the tests we give young learners do not contribute to that end, if indeed they get in the way of that goal, then they are useless and worse than useless.”
And indeed they are useless, or as Wilson has proven completely invalid due to the myriad errors involved in the whole standardization processs and testing, and are worse than useless as they actualy cause harm to students through killing their desire to learn through the labelling and sorting and separating out process.
I have always referred to it as the recievement gap.
Diane
I’m surprised at your response to this post: Lots of people, not just the reformers, talk about the achievement gap–it is real; and it means something different than, say, the poverty gap. Ray’s msg sounds like political correctness to me.
D
I agree that pointing to the “opportunity gaps” is preferable, and that much of what is meant by “achievement gaps” is test score gaps. I want to emphasize the plural, gaps not gap. There are gaps that can be seen between various demographic categories; there are gaps that can be seen in different ranges of test scores, there are gaps that can be seen in different state and local school systems. Using the singular leads to unproductive ideas that there is one “gap” with one solution.
I think all of these terms are jargon that blur any possible understanding. If students are not performing well on standardized tests, that may be the *result* of an opportunity gap; “opportunity gap” is not a meaningful way to refer to the performance problem itself. It makes sense to ask: 1 – are these tests a reasonable measure for whatever they are supposed to measure; are they useful educational tools? 2 – is there something unfair about the way they are administered or interpreted? 3 – what are the causes of *meaningful* information revealed by the tests? 4 – what other tools could or should replace or supplement the tests?
All of these labels seem to loaded and obscure to SAY anything.
Until we recognize the cumulative nature of micro-inequities in the schooling and education of children of the poor and children of color, no matter what we call it, the differences will remain. Until we stop using current standardized tests, obviously simply sorting instruments that clearly place children of color and of the poor at disadvantages (both score lower than others), we will continue to have sorting gaps (test scores follow income and color = poverty=lower test scores. Poverty + melanin = even lower test scores). Let’s call it the socio-economic, ethnic gap, or better yet let’s call it the societal discrimination gap. Or the inadequate measurement gap. Or the lack of equality gap, and on and on. Stop the madness, we don’t even know that there is a gap between what children know and can do. We have never tried to measure it accurately even with NAEP.
A while ago Pedro Nogura was on the radio talking about it. He said that essentially the gap reflects the problems with the system, not the people. My memory of what he said is that when one looks at scores by gender, the gap is not so much about race as gender.
Ages ago, when I first learned about the “gap”, it was called the “achievement test score gap”, since it is based on gaps in scores between different groups of students who take achievement tests. Sometime down the road, that got shortened to “achievement gap”.
I think this is similar to how “students at-risk for school failure” was ultimately shortened to “students at-risk”.
Honestly, it seems to be more about linguistic efficiency (or laziness) than anything –and probably why we use so many acronyms in education, too. Those don’t always work out very well either though. The ATSG and SA-RfSFs don’t sound out readily into words, like IDEA, so you’d pretty much get stuck using initials, as with NCLB and RttT, and there’s a lack of consensus about how to handle articles and hyphenated words in such instances, so you end up seeing different versions, like RTT.
“opportunity gap” or “wealth gap” are even more offensive. Let’s just look at each child individually. Funny thing is though, there is not a gap between races in online sxhool or home school. Those kids are really achieving, because parents are involved, that is the key.
i have a plea. Stop using the word. gay, to describe homosexuality. Gay means happy, and from I’ve seen, those who choose to do homosexual behavior are not really happy.
“Let us, at last, fire the language police. We don’t need them. Let them return to the precincts where speech is rationed, thought is imprisoned, and humor is punished.”
“As John Adams memorably wrote in 1765, ‘Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write…Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.’”