Wednesday, July 15, 2009

'Outrageous' state race gap in math

Sun-Times:
In fourth-grade math in 2007, white Illinois students scored 32 points higher than their African-American counterparts on the 500-point national test. The national gap was only 26 points.

By eighth grade, white Illinois kids scored 38 points higher than black peers. Nationally, white eighth-graders outpaced blacks by 31 points.

The disparity was largely due to black Illinois students doing worse than African Americans nationally.

The results reflect only public school students who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In reading, Illinois' racial disparity was much closer to that of the national average.

Some studies have tied the black-white achievement gap to the fact that African Americans are more likely to be poor, come from single-parent homes, face less classroom rigor and have less-prepared teachers.

McGee said Illinois needs to attack the math gap by teaching teachers to make math more interesting.

"The problem is, kids get to eighth grade and they don't like math because it's not taught in an interesting manner,'' McGee said.

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