ACHIEVEMENT GAP

Today I have dealt with the achievement gap in the education system of some countries. Unfortunately, I learned that in many countries of the world there are still big gaps and that students have worse chances because of their origin.

The first country I dealt with was the UK. In the UK there is a big achievement gap. Here, students who come from rich homes have it a lot easier than poor ones. Since you have to pay for higher education schools in England, only the rich students can go there. Poor or handicapped students often have a learning gap of more than 1.5 years. The longer the students attend the schools, the higher they climb.

 

Let's continue with the USA. Here, just like in England, there is a large achievement gap. African-American students and Hispanics are often graded lower than whites in the U.S. for the same achievements. They get kicked out of schools faster and have a smaller chance of getting into college, even though they score better. In recent years, however, the achievement gap has narrowed significantly, but it is still very evident.

 

The next country I looked at is Austria. Here the achievement gap is the smallest. At age 6, all students enter the 4th year of elementary school. After that, there are gymnasiums or middle schools. Often foreign parents are persuaded that their child is not suitable for a Gymnasium, although this is not true at all. From a middle school it is very difficult to change to a high quality school to complete the upper school, so most have to go to a commercial school, where the level is often much lower. There you don't learn as much and can't graduate. In Austria, women are accepted for apprenticeships much less often than men.

 

The last country I dealt with is China. Here there is an achievement gap due to the geographical location. Children in the West don't get as good an education as those in the big cities in the East. Additionally, China has intentionally created an educational system based on meritocracy. The patterns and causes of general educational gap are also applied to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics  gap in China. China has undertaken numerous efforts to address the inequalities in education, out of national economic and political concerns.

 

Finally, I looked at three organizations that are trying to reduce the achievement gap. The first is called CK-12, which creates online games for kids about the material they've been studying. This way the kids can check if they understood everything and where there are still gaps.

The second organization is called BrainScape. They believe that students learn best with flashcards and so have created a program where the students or the program creates games for them, but towards flashcards.

The last organization is called DimensionU. It creates online games for students to play against their peers and make them enjoy the subject at hand.

 

Honestly, I didn't realize there were still such huge differences in school systems around the world. I didn't think that skin color and gender were such a big issue around the world. Of course, we all have to work to ensure that everyone has the same rights, no matter what they look like or where they come from.