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Analyzing the Minority Gap in Achievement Scores: Issues for States and Federal Government
Author(s) -
Miller G. Edward
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
educational measurement: issues and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.158
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1745-3992
pISSN - 0731-1745
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-3992.2003.tb00135.x
Subject(s) - test (biology) , scale (ratio) , government (linguistics) , standardized test , state (computer science) , test score , gap analysis (conservation) , achievement test , psychology , no child left behind , mathematics education , political science , computer science , law , accountability , paleontology , biodiversity , linguistics , philosophy , physics , ecology , algorithm , quantum mechanics , biology
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that states demonstrate a reduction in the test score minority gap over time but does not specify what methodology states must use to demonstrate this. The Act also requires that a measure of Adequate Yearly Progress be established by each state expressed in terms of the percent of students who achieve a level of “proficiency” on the state examination. While the most common methods used by states for analyzing the minority gap in test scores over time are percent achieving a performance standard, mean scale scores, and effect sizes, the default method for analyzing the minority gap will likely be the percent achieving proficiency. This article considers some of the practical issues involved in using the percent achieving a performance standard, mean scale scores, and effect sizes to analyze the minority gap using Texas student performance on their in‐state assessment, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and SAT. The intent of the article is to increase the understanding of policymakers and others on the issues of using the various statistics to analyze the minority gap.