Achievement Gap In Education

The achievement gap in education refers to the differences that many students present throughout their academic life. There are many reasons that promote the developing of this gap among students. Race, language barrier and economic status are just a few of many that make some students do better than others. In the article “Achievement Gap” the author states that “the achievement gap shows up in grades, standardized tests scores, course selection, dropout rates and college-completion rates among other success measures”. The same article explains that this achievement gap it is primarily measured on minority groups, African-American, Hispanics and low income students, but in the past decade, scholars have paid especial attention to other achievement

Since that’s not going to happen anytime soon, educators can still take many research-proven steps to foster equality of opportunity in education “, said Paul C. Gorski in his article Building a pedagogy of engagement for students in poverty . In the essay Gorski shares some of the anecdotes that he has experienced throughout his career with students that come from a low income family, he also gives some of the strategies that teachers should be taking into consideration in order to help close the achievement gap. As the previous quote says, poverty cannot be eradicated from one day to the other, it takes times and efforts, but teachers should provide equal academic opportunities to students in their classrooms. The first strategy he proposes is “expressing high expectations through high order engaging pedagogies”, where teachers should express high expectation from all of his/her students no matter social class, and it’s been proved that low income students do better if the expectations are higher and they feel engaged. The second strategy is to enhance family involvement. Family has always been the most important link between students and school. Family members are the one who give the most support and many children find imperative to have their families by their side in their academic journey. Gorski states that it is important to make sure that family involvement are accessible to all parents, but especially those who work multiple jobs, don’t have paid leave and transportation. The third strategy is to incorporate art into instruction, because these programs create a sense of engagement among low income students as well as retention. It is worth mentioning that many of these students their families cannot afford any art courses, such as music, and with this strategy they may be more attracted to school. Another strategy is to incorporate movement into instruction, because many of