EP 248 Student Achievement Gap Fails to Close Over the Last 50 Years

Let that headline sink in for just a moment.  Differences in the performance on math, reading and science tests between disadvantaged and advantaged U.S. students have remained essentially unchanged for nearly half a century.  And in that time period, we established a federal Department of Education, saw funding changes meant to address the problem throughout the country, developed early childhood education and remedial initiatives and tried new models of schooling, including magnets, charters and others.  The study which documents this sad fact is a joint effort of Harvard and Stanford University, two of our nation’s most prestigious higher education institutions. Presenting the findings and methodology is one of the co-authors, Eric Hanushek, of the Hoover Institution at Stanford. It’s one of the most important topics we will report on to you this entire year.  Please listen.

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