New federal data show a continuing deep gulf between the educational experiences of traditionally disadvantaged student groups and their peers on a broad range of indicators, findings that follow years of efforts by government and advocacy groups to level the playing field in U.S. public schools.
Black and Latino students are still more likely to be suspended, more likely to attend schools with high concentrations of inexperienced teachers, and less likely to have access to rigorous and advanced coursework than their white peers, according to the data released today by the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights.
“Our systemic failure to educate some groups of children as well as others tears at the moral fabric of the nation,” U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said in a call with reporters. The data, which highlights disparities for students of color, students with disabilities, and English-language learners, shows that “we still fall far short” of the ideal of educational equity, he said.
The data also shows some bright spots, including a nearly 20 percent drop in out-of-school suspensions nationwide.
[For more of this story, written by Evie Blad, go to http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...schools-federal.html]
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