The Achievement Gap Survey Results

Our team gathered twenty-three responses from other students on campus. The
main questions we wanted to get answered were: which factors affect the achievement
gap the most?, where does the achievement gap begin?, and how to eliminate the
achievement gap?. First, we asked the survey takers general information dealing with
gender and grade level. Next, we asked them if they had ever noticed an achievement
gap in their society. 82.6 percent of the responses said that they had witnessed an
achievement gap and 17.4 percent said they had not. For the people who answered
yes, we then asked where did they see an achievement gap most heavily. The choices
were: elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, college, all of the above, and
other. The most chosen answer was all of the above. From this data we see that people
do see the achievement gap in all levels of education from elementary schooling up to
college.The next key question we asked was which factor affects the achievement gap
the most. The choices were: underfunding of schools, low economic income of families,
social interactions of students, race, individual performance abilities, and there is no
achievement gap. Surprisingly, the highest percentage answer with 30.4 percent was
individual performance abilities, and even more surprisingly 26.1 percent said that there
is no achievement gap. From this data we see that a large number of people think that
the achievement gap is based on performance of the student and is not a uncontrollable
issues. Some people do not even believe an achievement gap exists.
We are still debating on where the achievement gap begins, so we wanted
feedback to this question. The feedback we received were that people think the
achievement gap is started during school. The choices to the question were: before
schooling, during schooling, and there is no achievement gap. 60.9 percent of the
survey takers said that the achievement gap begins during schooling. So from this data
we see that a majority of people think that the achievement gap is involved within the
schools.

This data is controversial to our group

because three of our four articles state
that the achievement gap begins before
the child ever attended school.

The last main question that we asked the survey takers was how to eliminate the
achievement gap. The choices were: it cannot be eliminated, more school funding,
better staff and programs in schools, or increase the income of the poor. The most
popular choice was it cannot be eliminated. 36.4 percent of people said that it cannot be
eliminated and 31.8 percent said more school funding would end the achievement gap.
This data brings up a very good question, can the achievement gap be fixed? There is
an understanding of why people do think that the achievement gap cannot be fixed.
There are just too many other aspects related to the achievement gap that are too
broad to fix. Overall from the survey results we see that people think that the
achievement gap is centered around schooling and the student. Most people think that
there is no way to end the achievement gap, but some people believe school funding
would be the next best option.