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Critical Analysis of Articles for Racial Achievement Gaps

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Submitted By acalvo2
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Critical Analysis of Article
Education and Urban Society, Vol. 35 No. 2 (February 3003) The Achievement Gap:
Issues of Competition, Class, and Race
Retrieved from http://eus.sagepub.com/content/35/2/151.full.pdf+html
One of the key arguments in the Education and Urban Society, Vol. 35 No. 2 article is that closing the achievement gap between racial minorities and the racial majority does not merely require more competition and choice, but requires more objectives for educational attainment that are clearly defined, practices that are adequately implemented, and evaluations that are based on long-term effectiveness instead of short-term gains. An example given was the fact that public schools face critical challenges when defining equitable access and equality of opportunity for racial minorities in today’s standardized system of education. Due to the fact that
Neither African Americans nor Hispanics have been able to receive adequate and equal opportunities to excel, their performance on standardize testing has paled in comparison to the rest of the population in the United States (Heubert & Hauser, 1999; Irvine, 1990; Jencks &
Phillips, 1998; McNeil, 2000; Miller, 1995; Viadero, 2000). However, ironically enough, standardize testing is what is being used to measure the level of proficiency of students- even though these students are not being given sufficient tools to be able to learn the material given.
Because of this many have scrutinized this system and have hypothesized that instead of the standardized testing scores being representative of a student’s individual capability to learn, they should be a more “objective and efficient” means of accessing the accountability of not only the students, but the teachers and administration themselves (Neither African Americans nor
Hispanics have fared well in these areas (Heubert & Hauser, 1999;

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