For children from racial minorities or impoverished backgrounds, schools may actually compound the disadvantages they may face in learning fundamental math skills. Two separate new studies—one on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 8th grade math, the other on 15-year-olds’ math performance on the Program for International Student Assessment—both find that achievement gaps within schools account for more of the overall achievement disparities among students of different races or economic backgrounds than do gaps between schools.
