Racial Achievement Gap Analysis

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Register to read the introduction… Other schools of low income minorities show similar educational achievement gaps. Even with poverty stricken minority communities like the one George Washington Community school is in, there are ways to shorten the racial achievement gap. One such way is by creating out of school activities to encourage students to learn and stay in school. This along with the help of the community have changed the the graduation rate greatly. From 30 percent before George Washington Community school was established to 70 percent in 2007 (2008). The environment students grow up in influence the student education. If the students environment is negative towards education, like it is for many minorities, then it will discourage the student to learn. An example of a hostile environment would be Harlem, a community with a high crime rate. Education suffers in Harlem when students risk there lives to gunfire every time they walk to school. However, even Harlem has hope to decrease the racial achievement gap. The Harlem Children’s Zone, with its high percentage of black students, has decreased this gap greatly by changing the students environment to suite a learning environment. Their results are nothing more of miraculous when considering this …show more content…
When McKinsey introduced the gap he described it as On average, black and Latino students are roughly two to three years of learning behind white students of the same age (McKinsey, 2009).
McKinsey used graphs varying from the black to white gap of different states to the NAEP test scores of average reading and math of white, Latino, and black students. Using their own graphs McKinsey draws conclusions to support the racial achievement gap. However, McKinsey never explained why the conclusions he drew were valid. For example, McKinsey draws the conclusion that in Texas, low-income black students have the same average score on the fourth grade NAEP as low-income white students in Alabama (McKinsey, 2009).
After stating this McKinsey just assumes that his reader believes the information in front of him even though there is only numbers as proof and no cause. An example of a cause McKinsey could of used would be: education systems in Texas have family based programs that help minorities. McKinsey states the reason for not including causes

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