[nicollo]

All in the pursuit of a narrowing of the "achievement gap".

The "achievement" gap represents the decline in parity between races of "federal lunch qualified" (i.e. students on assistance, representing low-economic demographic) students in the 4th grade, based on standardized tests, and those same cohorts in the 8th grade, at which point black and Hispanic high achievement drops significantly, whereas white and Asian maintain the same rates.

In that black and Hispanic high achievers are lost between 4th and 8th grade, what the "achievement gap" highlights is that the hyper-focus on race, equity and meeting minimal standards is mal-serving those minority students. By further dividing by race, your Superintendent is merely exacerbating the problem.

Now, WHY your Superintendent is even bringing this up is because the "achievement gap" is the latest fad and not becuase it is actually meaningful to the school system (it could be). The reason the school systems constantly bounce from one educational fad to another is because 1) nothing they do works; and 2) whatever they do to change changes nothing of what they are already doing that doesn't work.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

black and Hispanic high achievers are lost between 4th and 8th grade

I would assume that's when the higher level gangs are starting to reach down to those kids and groom them for joining the gangs. The message they deliver is "don't act white - don't get educated." Peer pressure starts to kick in, the kids succumb and they are doomed. The kids that ignore the peer pressure and try to excel have one hell of a hard time doing that.