No Child Left Behind Act - 1737 Words

First, what is the achievement gap? According to the achievement gap in education refers to systematic variances in the ability to learn between students from majority populations and students from minority populations. The most significant effort made by the federal government to improve the nation s schools and student learning is the 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The ESEA was largely designed to address the achievement gap in multicultural education. However, improvement in the academic performances of poor and minority students has been slow over the last forty years. Raising student achievement across the board and eliminating the achievement gap between students from different†¦show more content†¦In this new era of accountability, the performance of all students is counted and schools must help every student to succeed. In this research paper I will focuses on four factors: Race, Socioeconomic Status, Family and High Quality Teaching/Schools. These themes were the most reoccurring and identified by previous research as having the largest impact on academic achievement. First I will elaborate on the first factor Race. African American males are disproportionately exposed to the type of psychosocial stressors that can lead to depression and poor decision making (Mizell, 1999). The psychosocial stressors that African American males are exposed to more than other groups are low educational and occupational achievement and low self-esteem. These risk factors can lead to depression and a poor sense of self and therefore not attaining the goals one once had. It is important when working with minority students to be sensitive to the psychosocial stressors that many African Americans are dealing with in an effort to help them cope and be successful students (Allen, 2011). No one cannot avoid race when discus sing the achievement gap. The statistics presented about the achievement gap are almost always broken down by race of students. The educational gap between African American 5 students and their White counterparts is not only an education problem but it is also a significant socioeconomic problem that impacts African