According to Federal data, “the single-most powerful predictor of racial gaps in educational is the extent to which students attend schools surrounded by other low-income schools" (Boschma & Brownstein, 2016). Often, students who are minorities or come from lower-income families attend schools with a majority of students who are also minorities or also come from lower-socioeconomic status backgrounds. In schools that are located in poorer communities, many factors affect the students ' academic achievements. Not only do these schools have less social and capital resources, but the students also may come from families with a single-parent household, and parents and older siblings who may not have college degrees (Boschma & Brownstein, 2016). As a result, the schools do not attract highly-qualified and educated teachers to teach in lower-income communities. The problem is that the cycle continues and minority students are more likely to attend schools with poor resources and less rigorous curricula, which does not present opportunities for higher education achievements (Rothert, 2005). Compared to schools that have low levels of minority and low socioeconomic background students, schools that have a high level of minority students or students that come from low socioeconomic status backgrounds tend to have twice the …show more content…
According to the Gallup Polls in 2005, 90% of the respondents responded that the most important issue was to close the achievement gap between white and minority students (Goertz, 2005). For many decades, teachers, paraprofessionals, and schools were not held strictly accountable for their actions and results in schools. Although the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 attempted to implement accountability rules, it did not strictly enforce holding responsible parties accountable with any sort of punishment if they did not fulfill their responsibilities. It was time for an education policy change that focused on the students’ outcomes and ways to improve the positive outcomes. The achievement gap between different populations groups cannot be ignored. Schools in the lower income and higher minority population communities need to also be held accountable and should not be held to lower standards because teachers were more likely to leave these schools. Different policies have been implemented such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which demonstrated a clear role for the federal government to cover costs for students. However, adequate achievement goals have not been met and the achievement gap