"Overall test score improvements often mask the continued weak performance of poor and minority students. In a recent report on California test scores from 1999-2002, the average Academic Performance /index (API) score for all schools steadily increased, but achievement gaps among and within schools - even those that are getting better - persisted. In other words, poor and minority children still trail their peers."
In this provocative report, researchers at WestEd have four recommendations for education decision makers. Says Fred Tempes, Director of WestEd's Comprehensive School Assistance Program (CSAP), "While each of these investments individually is costly and taken together they are intimidating, not making them may be the most costly option of all...Unless we really reconceptualize how we invest in education, the achievement gap won't be significantly narrowed."
