If you’re white in Ohio, state-testing data suggests you’ll probably score better on standardized tests than minority peers.
But in Athens, that’s not always the case, the data shows.
In 2011, multiracial students in Athens scored higher than their white peers in math but not in reading. Last year, multiracial and Hispanic students got higher test scores than whites in both subjects.
An Ohio Department of Education study found during the 2012-13 school year, elementary schools in Upper Arlington had more than 95 percent of white students score at proficient or above in reading, compared with only 79 percent of multiracial students.
Thomas Parsons, director of curriculum and development for the Athens City School District, said that the gap in score results between Athens and Upper Arlington, an affluent Franklin County neighborhood, points back to the poverty in Athens.
“I suspect that it probably goes back to poverty instead of race,” Parsons said. “Kids in poverty do not have the cultural advantages or family advantages that affluent students do.”
John Charlton, associate director of communications for the department, declined to comment on differences in test scores.
Other testing statistics, provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, show a racial gap in elementary school achievement tests nationwide since 1975. White third grade students in affluent school districts generally outperform their minority classmates on state achievement tests.
Some schools in the state with large minority populations have organizations that support students. But in Athens, the focus is more on economic disadvantage, Parsons said.
“The primary subgroup that is the motivation for our planning is economically disadvantaged students,” he said, also noting federal programs utilized in the schools to assist students in poverty.
Parson said the Title I program – which provides financial assistance to schools with high poverty rates – at The Plains Elementary School is essentially a program focusing on students who are economically disadvantaged.
George Watson, division chair of Marshall University’s School of Education, said that racial gaps in test scores do not actually show what is happening in schools.
“Perceptions of ability sometimes mask true capability of minority students as well as the cultural differences that may exist,” Watson said, adding that bias also plays a role in how minority students compare to their white peers.
“It has been discussed at length by researchers that achievement tests generally are biased toward white students and specifically for those living in the Northeast,” he said.
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