Worth Reading: Exposing the Gap - Why Minority Students Are Being Left Behind in North Carolina's Educational System -- Rural Policy Matters, Volume 2, Number 6 (June 2000)

Exposing the Gap documents a wide and persistent gap in achievement between minority and white students and urges state officials to make ending that gap the state's top education priority.

The gap is dangerous because North Carolina is one of the most aggressive testing states, determined to use test results to hold schools and teachers accountable by rewarding high test scores and punishing low test scores. Minority students are not prepared to compete in this high stakes testing system, the report warns.

The report notes that while 80 percent of the state's white students are performing at grade level in both reading and math, only 48 percent of its African American students are. The gap appears consistently in SAT scores, dropout rates, student long-term suspension rates, placement in academically gifted (less minority placement) and special education programs (more minority placement). The report provides detailed data for every school system in the state. It makes a host of concrete recommendations for action, including smaller schools, local task forces, and more minority teachers.

North Carolina is one of the nation's most rural states, with half its population living in places of under 2,500. Nearly one-third of the students who go to rural schools are minorities.

Check it out at http://www.ncjustice.org or order from the NC Justice and Community Development Center at P.O. Box 28068, Raleigh, NC 27611, 919.856.2570.