The achievement gap, typically thought of as
disparities in test scores between racial groups, is really more complex
than that. Among 11th-grade students in Springfield’s
District 186, only 20 percent of low-income students met or exceeded
standards on the science portion of the Prairie State Achievement
Examination. The issue of the achievement gap and, more
specifically, gaps, has been taking place nationally for many years now,
but the discussion has only recently trickled down to Springfield in any
meaningful way. One initiative, an educational-policy series on
closing the academic-achievement gap, organized by Mayor Tim Davlin’s
office and the University of Illinois at Springfield, takes place Monday,
Nov. 14, at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. The topic of the forum, “a national
dilemma,” will serve as an introduction to the problem and its
impact. Ken Page, president of the Springfield Branch
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will deliver a
summary of the NAACP’s Call to Action in Education. Then, representatives from Naperville, Ill.-based
Learning Point Associates and Bloomington-based State Farm, who are
co-sponsoring the event, will outline the history, trends, and effects of
the achievement gap, as well as its implications for the U.S. workforce. Two other forums have also been planned, but no dates
have been set. Separate from the policy series, a group studying the
local African-American achievement gap was put together by the Springfield
Urban League and city office of education liaison director Sheila
Stocks-Smith. She is moderating Thursday’s forum.
So far, the group has invited officials from the
Illinois State Board of Education and Illinois Business Roundtable. Since
July, the study group has met three times and, according to the SUL Web
site, a report summarizing the group’s finding will be available by
January 2007.
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2005.
