Why is the achievement gap harder to close in reading as opposed to mathematics? Wanting to find answers, we searched for statistics surrounding Maryland's own achievement gap and came across a recent article from The Baltimore Sun (link is below).
The article states that in third grade reading, for example, schools have cut the achievement gap in half in this past decade down to 18 percentage points; however the gaps continue to grow larger as students move through the grades.file:
Question: Why do you think this is? Do you think the new Common Core State Standards will have any affect on the achievement gap (in Maryland and/or across the U.S.)? Thoughts about math vs. reading?
The Achievement Gap is an interesting topic and it relates to Differentiating Instruction, because when you group students based on readiness and abilities, the prevalence of an achievement gap could influence how these groups interact and how successful group work will be.
Link to Baltimore Article:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-07-25/news/bal-achievement-gaps-in-maryland-are-still-wide-20130725_1_hispanic-students-grades-gaps
Link to Denver Achievement Gap article:
http://co.chalkbeat.org/2014/04/08/at-denvers-flagship-high-school-shocking-achievement-gaps-and-small-steps-forward/#.VH5kLkvhwds
The issue is why hasn't differentiated instruction supported closing the gaps in learning given all the research, practice, and money that have been directed to students in need? Could it be the conventional classroom is just not configured to accomplish this task? Is it reasonable to expect a teacher with a 1:30 teacher-pupil ratio to actually differentiate for each students in a 45 minute period? That's less than a minute per student.
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