Elk Grove Schools Fail to Close Black-White Achievement Gap, Study Says

A new report assesses how well California school districts are serving low-income and non-white students, and the results don't look good for Elk Grove Unified and districts across Northern California.

The Elk Grove Unified School District received a D+ for the 2010-11 school year in the study released last week by Oakland-based non-profit group The Education Trust–West. That's a slight improvement from the 2009-2010 school year, the first year the study was conducted.

But there's one category in which Elk Grove Unified continues to earn an 'F': the size of the achievement gap between black and white students. There, the district ranks 115th out of 128 districts studied statewide.

"While performance is trending upward for both white and African-American students, we are not closing the gap with African-American students to date," said Christina Penna, associate superintendent for secondary education at Elk Grove Unified. "I don't know what the root cause is, but I do know what we're doing to try and address it."

Penna said the district this year worked to identify students from all backgrounds that could succeed in Advanced Placement classes and mailed personal letters to their parents encouraging them to sign up. Principals are trying new tactics to reduce the disproportionate numbers of students of color who are suspended and expelled, she said, including offering more counseling and sending kids to on-campus study skills classes instead of suspending them.

Another program, "PSAT for all," saw the district paying for low-income students to take the exam, which helps prepare students for the SAT and college. But that was axed recently due to budget cuts.

Penna also provided data compiled by the district showing an increase in test scores for all ethnic groups between 2003 and 2011. The percentage of students in AP and honors courses has also climbed over the last three school years, for all ethnic groups except Native Americans.

She said district staff would discuss the Education Trust–West report with principals at a meeting this week.

The Education Trust–West used test scores and other publicly-available data to grade districts across four areas: performance and improvement among students of color and low-income students, the size of the achievement gap between white students and black and Latino students, and college readiness among students of color.

Southern California school districts, including some with high poverty rates, largely outperformed Northern California districts in the study. Seventy-two percent of districts in Northern California received an overall grade of 'D,' compared with just 15 percent of Southern California districts.

What do you think of the report? What can be done to close the achievement gap? Let us know in the comments.