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• Grade retention disproportionately affects African-American
males, who are most likely to be held back. Between the ages of
15 and 17, close to 50 percent of African-American males are either
below the average grade for their age or have dropped out of school.
• In 1999, 13 percent of Latino students in kindergarten through
12th grade had repeated a grade, compared to 9 percent of whites;
7 percent of Asians; 18 percent of African Americans and Native
Americans.
• High-stakes testing is correlated with high drop-out rates.
Nine of the 10 states with the highest dropout-rates use high-stakes
testing, while none of the states with the lowest drop-out rates
do. Minority and low-income students are more likely than others
to attend schools that use high stakes tests.
• The high school dropout rate for Latinos was 28 percent, compared
with 7 percent for whites and 13 percent for African Americans in
2000. The drop out rate for Latinos born outside the United States
was 44 percent.
• A student's performance on high-stakes exams is significantly
tied to the teacher's level of experience. Minority and low-income
students tend to have teachers with the lowest amounts of experience.
• High-stakes tests have been accused of penalizing students — especially minority students — who have received inadequate instruction.
• High-stakes tests do not necessarily make teachers and students
more motivated. Psychological studies have found those students
who are not motivated by the tests will begin to feel alienated
by the tests and the educational process.
• If test results are related to important decisions, teacher
often begin to teach to the tests; teachers with a high percentage
of minority students are significantly more likely to change their
teaching to prepare students for testing.
• There is little evidence of a correlation between high test
scores and job success. The test score gap between black and white
males has narrowed by half since the mid-sixties, while the black-white
wage gap (that narrowed primarily during the period of civil rights
enforcement) has grown since that time.
Sources of Information: The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University,
the National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation; the
National Center for Education Statistics.
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