Student Achievement Growth in Early Elementary Grades and the Persistence of the Achievement Gap. Research Brief. Volume 1909

This study found that as early as the beginning of kindergarten and before any formal schooling began for most students, the achievement gap already existed. It was mostly related to students' poverty, ELL status, and SWD status, as well as to schools' having larger proportions of economically disadvantaged students. Students from poor families (as measured by the FRL eligibility), English language learners, and students with disabilities were academically substantially behind their demographically similar peers in both reading and mathematics. Students enrolling in schools with a higher concentration of FRL students were also behind their demographically similar students attending schools with smaller poverty rates; that was true for both academic subjects. Minority students were behind their demographically similar peers in mathematics, but not in reading. During the first four academic years reading and mathematics learning occurred at equitable rates across all Elementary and K-8 schools. On the other hand, learning rates were related to student characteristics. ELL and Formerly ELL students showed substantially greater learning rates in both reading and mathematics than their demographically similar peers leading to a reduction in an achievement gap between ELL and non-ELL students. On the other hand, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities demonstrated substantially smaller annual learning rates in both academic disciplines than their peers leading to an increase in achievement gaps. Minority students demonstrated smaller annual rates of academic growth: Black/African American students -- in both reading and mathematics, while Hispanic students -- in reading but not in mathematics. Again, these smaller rates of academic growth only exacerbated achievement gaps.