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Achievement Gaps For Math, Reading Unchanged In Kansas For A Decade

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flickr, Creative Commons

Kansas and the rest of the country have been stagnant when it comes to math and reading scores over the last decade. But that lack of progress is also true for achievement gaps.

Credit Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress

The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported virtually no change in the gap between white and minority students' average test scores since 2007 for fourth and eighth grade math and reading.

Average scores for white students have been close to, or in a few cases above, the cutoff for being considered proficient in math or reading. The average scores for black students were closer to a score of basic, even dipping below basic for fourth grade math. Hispanic students tended to score between black and white averages.

The one positive: eighth grade reading scores for Hispanic students have been slowly inching up for years. But there’s still a long way to go to close the gap.

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Stephan Bisaha, based at KMUW in Wichita, is an education reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KMUW, Kansas Public Radio, KCUR and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. Follow him on Twitter @SteveBisaha. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post.