Guest columnist: Test scores mask disturbing achievement gap

The Nov. 4 AC-T editorial, “Test scores improving, but more is needed” quotes Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Superintendent June Atkinson: “…look at the trend [in test scores] since 2000 and see how we are progressing in North Carolina in reading and mathematics…” Summarizing results from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests given every other year to Asheville public school students, the DPI says “we can be very proud of the significant boost in fourth grade reading scores…”

Unfortunately, the NAEP test only provides a broad brush view of North Carolina reading and math proficiency. The report uses averages which mask the deeply disturbing achievement gap, the degree to which test scores diverge among racial and socioeconomic subgroups within our community.

According to the recently released NAEP State Snapshot Report, in 2015, 38 percent of all North Carolina 4th graders are at or above proficiency compared with 35 percent of 4th grade students in the nation as a whole. It is true N.C. is ahead of the national norm, but doubtful that this is cause for celebration.

This statistic of 38 percent is an average—the average of all students’ scores. When these scores are broken down by race a very different picture emerges. Although the NAEP Reading State Snapshot Report only provides data for North Carolina as a whole, the end-of-grade North Carolina tests given each year do report results by district and school and do give the racial breakdowns.

Reporting on the Asheville City Schools, the state EOG for 2015 presents a very different picture than the NAEP’s state averages: 28.4 percent of Asheville black and 33.3 percent of multiracial students are at the proficient level, hardly good news for their parents. Furthermore, Asheville City School district has five elementary schools, and when we break down the district’s 4th grade proficiency percentage by individual schools, an even more dismal record emerges. For the five schools, the 4th grade reading scores for black students range from 21.1 percent to 33 percent; for white students the range is 73.0 percent to 91.8 percent.

When we dig deeper than statewide averages, we see that the achievement gap between white and black/multiracial students is vast. Given that today 50 percent of Asheville students are students of color (of which 25 percent are black), unless we are able to boost minority students’ reading scores, the overall reading proficiency percentages in our schools will remain lackluster at best.

We have focused here on 4th grade reading for good reason. At Read To Succeed, a local nonprofit that provides volunteer in-school tutoring and mentoring to elementary students kindergarten through third grade, we believe the achievement gap must be closed by the end of third grade. Why third grade? Because it is the tipping point; students who are not proficient by then are four times more likely to drop out of school before they reach graduation. We believe we cannot afford to leave behind almost a third of our students and still have an economically and socially healthy community to leave to future generations. This is the reality of our world today.

Catherine Alter is currently development director for Read To Succeed Asheville.