Florida may be closing achievement gaps when it comes to minority students reaching basic levels in math and reading. But at advanced levels, many of those gaps are widening, according to a national report out today.
The report from the Indiana University Center for Evaluation and Education Policy finds that the "excellence gap" - the gap between the percentage of white and minority students scoring at the highest levels on standardized tests - is growing in most states.
In Florida, the percentage of white students scoring at the advanced level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in fourth grade reading rose from 6 to 11 percent between 1998 and 2007. But the percentage of black students at that level only rose from 1 to 2 percent, while the percentage of Hispanic students rose from 3 to 6 percent. The report includes plenty of of FCAT and AP data that shows a similar trend.
Bottom line: Bright students are being shortchanged, the report suggests, by accountability measures that put so much emphasis on struggling students. Recent reports like this one and this one have come to similar conclusions, while reports like this one say it ain't so.
Get inside the world of Florida education with St. Petersburg Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek and the rest of the Times education reporting team. We'll bring you up-to-date information about the latest education trends, fads and news and dig deep into Tampa Bay area school issues.
No more gabriel.
go away
Posted by: jj | February 05, 2010 at 08:37 AM
Gabriel
What are you talking about? Some kid blogs about how much he/she is being done wrong by their school and we should reward them with heroic heraldry? I don't see how this relates to the story which states that the gap between high achieving white students and minority students is growing. Is your under-served Wesley Chapel honor student a minority? If so, state facts and relate them to the matter at hand. Do you have anything more than casual stories regarding the inability of the school to challenge this student?
Come on Gabriel. You can do better than riding the anecdotal band wagon.
Posted by: uppity woman | February 05, 2010 at 04:45 AM
No Duh!
Florida has a hard time trying to meet the needs of any of it's students. How can it possibly meet the needs of it's[best & brightest] advanced students? A Wesley Chapel Honor Student had to go on Facebook, just to tell everyone, that his school isn't meeting his needs as an advanced student. That took real guts for a kid to use a social-networking site to tell the world how bad his Florida school is to he & other students. And from the reports,he certainly wasn't alone. He also paid dearly for his acknowledgment. That indeed took "Character" to recognize that his educational needs weren't being met by his school or by Pasco County for that matter. There is a future Litigator, Congressman, or even President in that young man. But Pasco's call was to silence him and to demote him from the National Honor Society, as if it were a "Country Club" and he gave out their "secret handshake". That's one of the reasons our current school board & super fail advanced students in Pasco County Schools. And there are similar stories all over Florida.
Posted by: Gabriel | February 05, 2010 at 12:38 AM
It's true. Schools focus their energy & $ onto the lowest achievers. Increases in this group help their "school grade" the most. Higher level students are being ignored. Every time an unfunded mandate comes down the pike from Tally, where do you think the money to make it work comes from?
Posted by: live & learn | February 04, 2010 at 12:34 PM
If no child gets behind then no child gets ahead. Hand in hand we go marching into mediocracy.
Posted by: WE loves us some edjumacation | February 04, 2010 at 11:41 AM