(Dover, DE) The Delaware State Board of Education released the 2006 achievement gap report entitled Awareness to Action Revisited: Tracking the Achievement Gap in Delaware Schools.  The report was compiled by the Research and Development Center at the University of Delaware and funded by the State Board of Education.  It is the fourth in an annual series of reports which tracks the gap by school and by subgroups over a multi-year period.

The report is meant to be informative for both communities and schools.  It shows all Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) tested grades by school.  For each tested grade in a school both reading and mathematics scores are disaggregated by race, income status, limited English proficiency and special education categories.  The scores are plotted from 2003 through 2006.  Each school is also identified by its own demographic makeup and its status for 2006 under federal guidelines specified by No Child Left Behind. 

In releasing the report, Jean Allen, State Board President, noted that we are seeing some real signs of progress at the school level with many of the elementary schools essentially closing the achievement gap in 3rd grade reading and middle schools and high schools are showing progress.  “We continue to be concerned about the gaps that persist in mathematics across many of our schools as well as the large gaps that persist at the high school level particularly in math.  These are areas on which we have to put more focus.”

            Additional findings show that special education students continue to fall further behind as they move through the grades and charter schools have little gap information due to the lack of diversity in their student bodies.

The State Board and the Achievement Gap Action Group released three earlier reports, Awareness to Action:  Recognizing and Addressing the Achievement Gaps in Delaware Schools in March 2002, Awareness to Action Revisited: Tracking the Achievement Gap in Delaware Schools 2004 and Awareness to Action Revisited: Tracking the Achievement Gap in Delaware Schools 2005.

Copies of all achievement gap reports can be found on the State Board of Education web page located at www.doe.state.de.us or on the University of Delaware’s Research and Development Center at www.rdc.udel.edu

            For any additional information contact Ann Case, Policy Analyst to the State Board of Education by phone at 302-735-4101 or e-mail at acase@doe.k12.de.us or Audrey Noble, Ph.D., Director of the Research and Development Center by phone at 302-831-4433 or by e-mail at ajnoble@udel.edu

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Delaware’s State Board of Education is committed to promoting high expectations for all students, highly effective educators, visionary leadership, sound policies and strong support for public education in this State.
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