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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 statistic The typical student before entering the Harlem Children’s Zone middle school was outscoring only about 20 percent of New York City’s white students in math, but after three years in the charter, was outscoring 45 percent of white students (Robelen, E. 2009). The family a student is brought up by is a another cause for the racial education achievement gap. Family plays important roles in a students life because students are thought to learn at a young age by families. If a parent strives to create a desire to learn for a child at a young age he or she will continue that into school. Because this relationship is crucial to closing the racial educational achievement gap, many schools with a high minority rate encourage family oriented programs. More than half of the students in the San Diego district are minorities. To decrease the racial achievement gap one may target the families of minorities like Casey did by investing $800,000 over four years to support a district-lead effort to foster parent engagement to improve communication between parents and schools (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2008). According to the articles, the causes for the racial achievement gap are clearly stated to be low income, environment, and family influence of a student. Once the cause to this gap was found the solution became clear. The statistics used for the racial achievement gap for McKinsey is quite extensive, but McKinsey does not give proper cause to what creates the racial educational achievement gap.
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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 as, inconsistencies in how data are gathered and reported make it difficult to understand the factors shaping the achievement gaps at the system level. This hinders policy makers and educators in their pursuit of better outcomes (McKinsey, 2009). With this statement McKinsey implies that causes to their data can only lower the ability for someone to change the racial achievement gap. This statement completely wrong however, without a cause one may not start on creating a solution. McKinsey, by avoiding stating a cause for the gap has only lowered the use and merit of their data.
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 as, inconsistencies in how data are gathered and reported make it difficult to understand the factors shaping the achievement gaps at the system level. This hinders policy makers and educators in their pursuit of better outcomes (McKinsey, 2009). With this statement McKinsey implies that causes to their data can only lower the ability for someone to change the racial achievement gap. This statement completely wrong however, without a cause one may not start on creating a solution. McKinsey, by avoiding stating a cause for the gap has only lowered the use and merit of their data.