Full Description
In this volume prominent scholars, experts in their respective fields and highly skilled in the research they conduct, address educational and reading research from varied perspectives and address what it will take to close the achievement gap—with specific attention to reading. The achievement gap is redefined as a level at which all groups can compete economically in our society and have the literacy tools and habits needed for a good life.
Bringing valuable theoretical frameworks and in-depth analytical approaches to interpretation of data, the contributors examine factors that contribute to student achievement inside the school but which are also heavily influenced by out-of-school factors—such as poverty and economics, ethnicity and culture, family and community stratifications, and approaches to measurement of achievement. These out-of-school factors present possibilities for new policies and practice. The overarching theme is that achievement gaps in reading are complex and that multiple perspectives are necessary to address the problem. The breadth and depth of perspectives and content in this volume and its conceptualization of the achievement gap are a significant contribution to the field.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. The Achievement Gap in Reading: Unique Historical and Future Perspectives
Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels
Part I. Cases of Specific Demographics and Economics
Chapter 2. Poverty's Powerful Effects on Reading Achievement and the Achievement Gap
David Berliner
Chapter 3. Creating Responsive Teachers of Hispanic and Bilingual Students Learning English
Robert Jiménez, Sam David, Mark Pacheco, Victoria J. Risko, Lisa Pray, Keenan Fagan, and Mark Gonzales
Chapter 4. Motivating and Instructing African American Students in Classrooms
John T. Guthrie and Angela McRae
Chapter 5. Closing the Reading Achievement Gap for Indigenous Children
Jay S. Blanchard and Kim Atwill
Part II. Conceptualizing and Measuring the Achievement Gaps in Reading
Chapter 6. Why the Achievement Gap?
Edmund W. Gordon and Paola C. Heincke
Chapter 7. Including Differences in Variability in Assessing the Achievement Gap in Reading
Michael Harwell
Chapter 8. International Brain Wars: Adolescent Reading Proficiency, Performance, and Achievement from a Competitive Global Perspective
Rosalind Horowitz
Part III. Explaining and Reducing the Achievement Gaps in Reading
Chapter 9. The Talk Gap
Terrance D. Paul and Jill Gilkerson
Chapter 10. Summer Reading Loss is the Basis of Almost all the Rich-Poor Reading Gap
Richard L. Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen
Part IV. Contradictory Efforts and Commonalities in Attempts to Close the Gaps in Reading Achievement
Chapter 11. The Federal Effort: How Five Different and Sometimes Contradictory Efforts have been made to Close the Achievement Gap
Richard Long and Alan Farstrup
Chapter 12. Synthesis, Discussion, and Recommendations: What We Can Do to Advance Reading Achievement
Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels
List of Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index
