The racial gap in school

Suffice it to say, the kids aren't using their cellphones to get test answers, which is the concern uttered in his other story today: The concern that students are misuing their cellphones.

Are we getting anywhere with reducing racial disparities in education?

In the preliminary basic skills test in 1996, statewide, whites scored about 80.1% correct on the math and 73.8% correct on reading, while African Americans scored 59.5 and 54.5% correct on the math and reading exams, respectively. A a 19.3 to 20.6 percentage point gap between Black and White test scores, according to a study of Minnesota in 2004 that claimed poverty had little to do with the gap, and how the students were treated probably did.

A 2004 series by Minnesota Public Radio looked at the gap and found a conglomeration of roadblocks -- race, class and culture. In one basket-case school in St. Paul (Dayton's Bluff), a new administration and curriculum was installed with encouraging results. In the most recent tests, 54% of African Americans at the school were reading at a proficient level, compared to 77% of whites. In math, the gap was only 10%.

Statewide, however, the gap is significant: 34% between blacks and whites in reading, 35% in math.