Flaws in MCPS Achievement Gap Report Noted

Did MCPS middle schools close the academic achievement gap? SEPTEMBER 6, 2012 BY: KUMAR SINGAM (...)

"The achievement gap is generally accepted as being the difference between the performance of African American or Hispanic students on an academic indicator, and their white and Asian counterparts. Indeed, that is how the author of the report, Dr. Elizabeth Cooper-Martin, seeks to define the achievement gap."

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"According to a table, included as Appendix A in the report, the gap closing was calculated by taking the difference in the average for all students and that of African Americans or Hispanics. It seemingly contradicts the very definition the author of the report espoused. Indeed, by seemingly including the scores of African Americans and Hispanics in the average of all students, one could argue that the author lowers the average for all students. Consequently, the difference the author calculates would be necessarily smaller. Unreliable measures and the gap calculated in a manner contrary to the very definition the report embraced, one can argue, does not make a convincing case for gap closure."

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