Sept. 11--For more than a decade, state educators have focused intensely on helping black and Latino students perform as well in school as their white and Asian peers, calling the issue a social and economic imperative.
Data from new state tests suggests that they still have a long way to go.
The gap in academic achievement between different ethnicities and family income levels is worse than previously reported, based on a Los Angeles Times analysis of results from new state tests given this year in California.
A troubling pattern emerges when the scores are compared with those from the prior tests, which were last given to public school students two years ago.
While scores declined for all students, black and Latino students saw significantly greater drops than whites and Asians, widening the already large gap that was evident in scores from earlier years.
Under the previous test, for example, the gap separating Asian and black students was 35 percentile points. The gap increased to 44 percentile points under the new test.
Asian students' results dropped the least on the new tests, which widened the gap between them and those who are white, black or Latino, a Times analysis showed.
White students also maintained higher relative scores than their black and Latino peers.
"There's a problem and it's not, per se, the test," said Bill Lucia, of the Sacramento-based advocacy group EdVoice. "There is something going on here when you talk about the difference in the size of the gap, particularly in math."
In that subject, 69% of Asian students achieved the state targets compared with 49% of whites, 21% of Latinos and 16% of blacks.
While even Asian students have much room to improve, their relative performance stood out.
A similar pattern occurred with students from low-income families. Their scores declined at a steeper rate than students from more affluent backgrounds.
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State officials have warned against making comparisons between the old and new tests, which are different in form and content. They also are more rigorously graded. These factors combined to result in much lower overall scores; far fewer students achieved state learning targets.
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L.A. Board of Education President Steve Zimmer said the results need to be carefully interpreted, and that a variety of factors could have affected the scores, particularly in the first year of a test.
Whatever the case, the goal of closing the achievement gap is paramount.
"We have profound equity challenges and no one should rest easy until these are addressed," he said.
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