The Huge Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap

[BridgeTheGap]

McKinsey & Company is one of the leading management consulting companies in the world so when they turn their attention to analyzing a problem, people listen. Recently, McKinsey's Social Sector Office has been studying a crisis affecting America's children that has enormous repercussions for our nation. In April, they released the report The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools, and in it they concluded our nation's persistent educational disparities are taking a huge economic toll.

McKinsey's research shows that while we may have promised to create an educational system where there will be "no child left behind," we're still very far from living up to that promise. Not only do we continue to leave behind whole groups of children, but our failure to educate all our children to the highest levels means students in America overall are being left behind in a world where global competition is increasingly tough―resulting in huge costs for all of us.

What is the price we pay for schools that aren't doing their job for children in America? Who pays it? McKinsey reported two kinds of costs―one price paid for by the individual students we leave behind and another price paid by our country. For individual children faced with unequal educational opportunities, McKinsey found that "avoidable shortfalls in academic achievement impose heavy and often tragic consequences, via lower earnings, poorer health and higher rates of incarceration." They also discovered that, sadly, it is possible to predict which children are being singled out to bear this burden before they have even finished elementary school. For many students, poor achievement as early as fourth grade appears to predict future chances of graduating from high school or college and of low lifetime earnings. But some children are at greater risk than others before they even enter their first classroom--especially children who are Black, Latino or poor.

McKinsey's research showed "on average, Black and Latino students are roughly two to three years of learning behind White students of the same age." The income achievement gap was just as glaring with poor children: "roughly two years of learning behind the average better-off student of the same age." They were also able to make comparisons between groups by both race and income. Not surprisingly, they found the intersection of race and poverty was the most dangerous of all: "Poor White students tend toward lower achievement than rich White students. Whites, meanwhile, significantly outperform Blacks and Latinos at each income level . . . low-income Black students suffer from the largest achievement gap of any cohort." Measured in years again, "the average non-poor White student is about three and a half years ahead in learning compared to the average poor Black student."



Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/the-huge-economic-impact_b_317280.html

[LWolf]

1. 1. Not exactly news to educators.

It's not like we ever thought NCLB would actually close the gap; it doesn't address the sources.

2. We didn't "promise to create and educational system where there would be "no child left behind." That was an Orwellian label given to reforms designed to privatize the system, and it was created by politicians, not educators.

3. The price we pay? Yes, we pay that price. Some in power WANT a large supply of steady cannon fodder and cheap labor. If they didn't, if they really wanted to change that situation, we'd have educators, not privatizers, ushering in the changes that need to happen.

4. And finally, school performance and the SES of the communities they serve are interrelated, and it doesn't go one way. It isn't only that poor school performance leads to poor prospects; it's also that poverty leads to poor school performance. That's a vicious cycle, and to break it, attention, and resources need to be turned to the source: poverty. Schools alone will not make poverty go away.

[BridgeTheGap]

2. Well put! n.t