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The Gap that fails to close

The achievement gap is the gap in academic outcomes between diverse groups of students. Those groups can differ in income, race, gender and more. Today I want to talk a bit about this gap in different countries.


In the UK, these gaps, which are often called “attainment gaps” there, have been mostly narrowing over the last years. However, research suggests that in 2019, meaning even before the Covid outbreak, the attainment gap between poor primary school pupils and their wealthier peers has widened for the first time since 2007. Not by a large margin, but concerning nevertheless. According to experts, rising levels of persistent poverty is to blame. The worst gap is that between black Caribbean and white British students; By the time they face their “General Certificate of Secondary Education” exams, black Caribbean kids are 10.9 months behind their white counterparts. In 2014, they were “only” 6.3 months behind.

As with many other problems regarding inequality, the United States are especially affected. But for all that, U.S. achievement gaps are also among the most researched. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports that the widest gap exists between white and African American students. On average, African American eighth-graders score 31 points less in math testing situations than their white peers. Generally, Asian-Americans do best, followed by white Americans, then Hispanics and then African Americans.

Now, I could find close to no data on Austrian achievement gaps. What I did find was confirmation of their existence and papers of the OECD stating that they’re a big problem Austria is facing and that their reduction is a key goal.

But efforts are being made to counteract these gaps; Many Organisations, like the UNESCO and the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), as well as renowned Universities, like the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan do research on the topic and fight for more equity in education.

This means, even though we live in a very unequal world, and shouldn’t fail to recognize that, we also shouldn’t lose hope!

What do you think about all that? What should be done about educational inequity? Write your thoughts as a comment!

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