Achievement Gap Study Suggests Changes to School System

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) The school system is partly responsible for flagging success of Latino students in Utah. That's according to a new report from the Utah Education Policy Center. Researcher Andrea Rorrer says institutional bias - including lack of accountability measures - sets students of color up to perform poorly compared to their white counterparts.

The report was commissioned by the Centro de la Familia de Utah in an attempt to clarify the extent of Utah's so-called "achievement gap."

Rorrer and her co-author Enrique Aleman say Utah policymakers need to begin recognizing that Latino parents and culture are not solely to blame for the gap. Salt Lake School District Superintendent McKell Withers agrees, but says language skills, poverty, learning disabilities and race are all barriers to a student's success, too.

The report indicates that 30 percent more white students are proficient in basic skills than their Latino counterparts.

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