Can Schools Close the COVID Inequality Gap?

Katharine B. Stevens
American E nterprise Institute
December 9, 2020
The public schools are failing to close achievement gaps
and ensure equal opportunity for all children
• On the 2019 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) exam:
• Almost four out of five lower-income children scored below Proficient in reading… in grades 4, 8, and
12.
• Forty percent of lower-income twelfth graders scored below NAEP’s lowest level of Basic in reading
and more than one half (54 percent) scored below Basic in math.

• A major study recently found that achievement gaps between wealthier and poorer children
have remained unchanged over the past 50 years.

• 2017 ACT scores showed huge achievement gaps in college readiness:

• Just 9 percent of students in the class of 2017 who came from low-income families, whose
parents didn’t attend college, and who identified as Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Pacific Islander
were strongly ready for college.
• The readiness rate for students with none of those demographic characteristics was six times higher.
Interactive Map
State-Level Performance of the Public
Schools
in 50 States and District of Columbia
Percentage of Eighth Graders Who Lack Minimum
Competence in Reading and Math, Achievement Gaps
between Lower-Income and Higher-Income Students,
and Per-Student Spending.

Report
Still Left Behind: How America’s Schools
Keep Failing Our Children
September 2020
Percentage of eighth graders who scored at Proficient
or above on the 2019 NAEP Reading Assessment *

60%

50%

45%
40%

30%

20%
20%
10%

0%
Higher-Income Lower-Income
-10%

*National Assessment of Education Progress

Percentage of eighth graders who scored below the lowest
level of Basic on the 2019 NAEP Reading Assessment
*

60%

50%

40% 40%

30%

20%

17%
10%

0%
Higher-Income Lower-Income
-10%

*National Assessment of Education Progress

Percentage of eighth graders who scored at Proficient
or above on the 2019 NAEP Math Assessment *

60%

50% 48%

40%

30%

20% 18%

10%

0%
Higher-Income Lower-Income

*National Assessment of Education Progress

Percentage of eighth graders who scored below the lowest
level of Basic on the 2019 NAEP Math Assessment *

60%

50%

46%
40%

30%

20%

18%
10%

0%
Higher-Income Lower-Income
-10%

*National Assessment of Education Progress

Public K-12 spending per student from 1970 to 2015 (in 2018
$)
vs. 12th grade NAEP scores in mathematics and reading
$13,000 $12,138

$12,000
460

12 Grade NAEP Scores in Math and Reading

Per Student Spending in 2018 Dollars

$11,000

$10,000 410

$9,000

360
$8,000

$7,000
Mathematics
$5,110 310

$6,000
Reading

$5,000 260
70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 99
4 96 98 00 02 04 06 08 10 12 14
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 1 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
Now what?