The academic achievement gap: An examination of teacher perceptions of disparate student performance

The achievement gap between White or Asian students and Black, Hispanic, or economically disadvantaged students has remained virtually the same since the early 1970s. Since 1975, per-pupil spending (after adjusting for inflation) has doubled, while the average 17-year-old is no more proficient in reading or mathematics than his or her student counterpart was in 1975. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify and understand the reasons, based on teacher perceptions, for disparities among certain groups of students within the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. By surveying and interviewing 8th-grade Language Arts teachers, findings revealed that economically disadvantaged students and students lacking English Language proficiency are the lowest academic performers. Lacking effective communication of the programs offered by the educational system, the result is an unequal participation among students and services not utilized by those targeted students. Educators viewed professional development opportunities and in-service training as unfocused, discretionary, and lack the substance to address the needs of the low-performing students in the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.