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Solutions & Strategies to Reduce the Achievement Gap: Tracking

Articles and Research Papers

Closing the Achievement Gap by Detracking, from Phi Delta Kappa International.

Research brief review.
A study of the Rockville Centre School District on Long Island. "...closing the "curriculum gap" is an effective way to close the "achievement gap."

Parsing the Achievement Gap [PDF] by Paul Barton, Education testing Service (ETS), 2003.

See a related PowerPoint presentation for Delaware by the University of Delaware Education Research & Development Center

Policy paper.
Gives and discusses 14 correlates and related data:

School	Before and Beyond School
* Rigor of Curriculum * Teacher Preparation * Teacher Experience and Attendance * Class Size * Technology-Assisted Instruction * School Safety	* Parent Participation * Student Mobility * Birthweight * Lead Poisoning * Hunger and Nutrition * Reading to Young Children * Television Watching * Parent Availability

Tracking Achievement Gaps and Assessing the Impact of NCLB on the Gaps: An In-depth Look into National and State Reading and Math Outcome Trends [PDF] by Jaekyung Lee, State University of New York at Buffalo.

..."over the past few years since NCLB’s inception, state assessment results show improvements in math and reading, but students are not showing similar gains on the NAEP—the only independent national test."

Research review.
Key findings (see page 12):
1. "NCLB did not have a significant impact on improving reading and math achievement...achievement remains flat in reading and grows at the same pace in math after NCLB than before."
2. "The racial and socioeconomic achievement gap in the NAEP reading and math achievement persists after NCLB."
3. ..."both first and second generation states failed to narrow NAEP reading and math achievement gaps after NCLB."
4. "NCLB’s reliance on state assessment as the basis of school accountability is misleading since state-administered tests tend to significantly inflate proficiency levels and proficiency gains as well as deflate racial and social achievement gaps in the states."