Closing the Gap in Atlanta

It’s always a time for celebration when districts improve student performance on state assessments. Atlanta Public Schools (APS) can certainly celebrate. The past three years have shown steady, even remarkable, growth in the proportion of students meeting or exceeding state standards in the 4th, 6th, and 8th grades.

The tougher challenge, though, for districts serving a high proportion of students from families with low incomes or students whose native language is not English is to actually close the gap between their students’ performance and that of students without those educational challenges. Atlanta Public Schools is doing just that.

The gap between student performance in APS versus all of Georgia’s students has been reduced in two-thirds of the comparisons one can make for 4th, 6th, and 8th grades. Such an achievement requires not just a celebration with punch and cookies, but a fanfare with parades and big brass bands!

Between 2000 and 2003, the proportion of 4th graders meeting or exceeding state standards in reading has increased from 45 to 75 percent. The gap between student success in Atlanta and the state of Georgia as a whole was reduced from 18 percentage points to five in 2003, representing a 72 percent decrease in the gap.

Similar progress is found in the state’s assessment of language arts, where the percentage of 4th graders meeting or exceeding state standards went from 57 to 76 percent, representing an 86 percent reduction in the gap. For 4th grade mathematics, the gap in Atlanta students’ performance has been cut by 63 percent as the proportion of students meeting or exceeding the state standards went from 43 to 67 percent.

Student performance at the 6th grade level showed increases in the proportion meeting or exceeding state standards in reading and language arts, but not in mathematics. The gap for reading was reduced by 32 percent and that for language arts by 19 percent. The gap in mathematics performance, comparing Atlanta 6th graders to those throughout the state, increased by 15 percent.

Eighth grade performance on Georgia’s state assessments shows steady increases in the proportion of students meeting or exceeding state standards. In language arts, the gap in student performance was reduced by 17 percent. The gap, however, in reading and mathematics, was not closed for 8th graders.

So find your trumpets and march a few steps to honor the accomplishments of educators in Atlanta.

April 2004