English acquisition crucial to closing achievement gap in Summit County schools

Summit Daily.com (Frisco, CO)

According to achievement data taken from a five-year period, it’s the language proficiency gap—not poverty or ethnicity—that most effects the disparity in performance between Hispanic and non-Hispanic students in Summit County. McREL’s Jim Eck presented this data to school board members following three years of school improvement work through a state Closing the Achievement Gap (CTAG) grant. After examining scores according to how well students knew English, he said, “As students are being moved into (fluency), you’re seeing improvements in their performance.” The gap in reading performance overall went from 47 percent to 39 percent, with 9th and 10th graders closing the gap most significantly—from 60 to 37 percent.  

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