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Proposed Expansion of Evidence, Implications, and Success Stories Sections
In hopes of expanding the current article and to address some of the concerns Wikipedia has mentioned, I propose to make some revisions in the "Evidence", "Implications and "Success Stories" sections. Specifically, the content under "Evidence" currently displays some graphs from the National Assessment Educational Progress (NAEP). While this mirrors the same content as in the article Achievement gap in the United States, I think it would be beneficial to use multiple sources, and to examine the various ways racial achievement gap can be manifested. Specifically, I would reorganize the "Evidence of the Racial Achievement Gap" section to include several new subsections: 1. Standardized Test Scores, 2. High School Dropout Rates, 3. College Acceptance and Retention Rates, and 4. Longitudinal Trends of the Achievement Gap.
Furthermore, I would like to add two additional subsections on the "Implications of the Achievement Gap" section: 1. Individual Outcomes, and 2. Effects on the US Economy. The current section is rather brief, and only gives the macro perspective, whereas outcomes on the individual are largely unaddressed.
Lastly, I would change the "Success Stories in Narrowing the Racial Achievement Gap" to include not only "Charter Schools", but also "Policy Changes" and "School Initiatives". There has been marked progress made in the racial achievement gap, outside of charter school systems, that need to be recognized.
Alisa, I think you have made some great contributions to this article. Some of these suggestions are not from sections in which you wrote, but rather, are other edits that I think could be made to this page. That being said, in the introduction, it states that “There are several different factors that cause this gap, which are detailed below.” If such a statement is going to be made about causes, you should also mention origins, implications, solutions etc. in this sentence because the article is not solely devoted to causes, which is what is implied in the introduction. Also, in the first paragraph under evidence, it says “However, the racial achievement gap remains because not all groups of students are advancing by the same intervals”. I think “at the same rate” is a more logical conclusion to that sentence. Furthermore, under “Origin of the Racial Achievement Gap” and “Family Factors”, you mention concerted cultivation as being practiced by middle-class families regardless of race but then in the last sentence of that paragraph it says how this gives white children more social capital. I think there needs to be some clarification of the link between race and class because right now this paragraph is making a lot of assumptions without stating them. Finally, you mention in your post above that under "Success Stories in Narrowing the Racial Achievement Gap" to include not only "Charter Schools", but also "Policy Changes" and "School Initiatives". I think you should definitely add these sections, especially because you said there is quite a bit of information on this. Overall though, you have done a really good job! Also, one final thing -- your name still appears red on Wikipedia and I would recommend changing that just to give yourself more credibility and make you seem more "official" because you are doing a lot of really good work on this article. I don't actually remember how to change it, but if you go to Ana's page there should be directions! Colleenfugate (talk) 20:59, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
