Sunday, June 3, 2018
Almost half of African American, Hispanic, and Native American students in the United States do not graduate high school on time with their classmates.
It’s a startling statistic that demonstrates the extent to which students of color are being left behind during their education. This gap in student achievement between students of color and white students has been well-documented for decades. Policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 and 2015’s Every Student Succeeds Act have highlighted the importance of closing the gap, but many challenges remain, including a lack of public school funding that has contributed to schools in high-poverty areas being under-resourced, as well as unequal access to technology and the internet.
Teachers in today’s public school system can and must do more to help children from minority backgrounds reach the same level of achievement as their peers.