The Achievement Gap:

THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: FILL IT, BRIDGE IT, CLOSE IT... IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE!

“Mathematics has the greatest and most indefensible differences in achievement and participation for students of different ethnicities, genders, and socioeconomic income levels for any subject taught in the United States.”

- Jo Boaler, professor of mathematics education at Stanford University

WOW.

As a math teacher, reading that statement makes me both very sad and very angry. I suppose that in my naive view of education, I’ve always thought of math as the great equalizer, the universal language that everyone has equal access to. I’ve always thoughts that numbers don’t see skin color, gender, socioeconomic status, or any other traits that we use to distinguish people. Numbers don’t judge, numbers don’t form prejudices, numbers don’t play favorites. However, as is most often the case in all other realms in life, factors such as history, institutional barriers, societal barriers, and human nature come into play and things are never quite as simple as they seemingly should be.

I cannot, in good conscience, spend my days looking into the eyes of kids from all parts of every spectrum and be accepting of any achievement gap. That’s a big part of the reason that I am constantly striving to find best practices. One way to combat the achievement gap in math is to seek out the best possible ways of teaching math so that it is accessible to all.

In an article entitled “5+1 Things Teachers Can Do to Close the Math Achievement Gap,” author Goorish Wibneh tackles the topic of the math achievement gap head on and proposes 6 ideas to start bridging the gap.

This terrific New York Times articled entitled "Beyond 'Hidden Figures': Nurturing New Black and Latino Math Whizzes" chronicles the experiences and challenges of three Black and Latino students who are enrolled in an experimental summer program in downtown Manhattan for youths with a high aptitude for math. The stories of how each student got there, their experiences in the program, as well as their uncertain futures is beautifully written and definitely worth your time. So please read!