Education Gap Really Exists
By Yvette Grissom

If you ignore a problem does it go away? On Tuesday Mar. 13 at the public meeting of Community School Board 30, the parent members of Queensbridge Community In Action (QCIA) once again confronted Superintendent Dr. Angelo Gimondo and District 30 school board members with the imperative that they acknowledge that there is an educational achievement gap between students from Queensbridge and the rest of District 30 students.

It has now been 10 months since Superintendent Gimondo attended a community meeting in Queensbridge and committed to provide QCIA with the student level data of the educational outcomes of Queensbridge youth. At the meeting, QCIA presented statistics from New York City Board of Education data which demonstrate a significant educational achievement gap between Queensbridge children and the rest of the children in District 30. Since that time, the gap has grown. During the 1998-1999 school year only 26.7 percent of students at schools Queensbridge children are most likely to attend were meeting the state standards in reading, while 42 percent of the children in the rest of District 30 were. In other words, there was a 15 percent gap in educational achievement between the schools Queensbridge youth are most likely to attend and the rest of the schools in District 30. In the 1999-2000 school year only 30.8 percent of the children at the schools Queensbridge children are most likely to attend were meeting state standards in reading, while 48 percent of the children in the rest of the district were meeting the state standards in reading. In 1999-2000 the gap grew to 17 percent, up two percent from the previous year.

The schools Queensbridge children are most likely to attend are significantly behind the city wide average of students meeting the state standards in reading. In ‘98-’99, 35 percent met the standards in reading and in ‘99-’00, 39.7 percent met the state standards in reading. In mathematics, during ‘98-’99, 26 percent of Queensbridge schools students met the state standards as compared to 44.6 percent of all other students in District 30. In ‘99-’00 24.1 percent of students in core Queensbridge schools met the state standards as compared to 45.4 percent in the rest of the district’s schools. And the gap continues to widen…the percent of students meeting the standards in math at core Queensbridge schools decreased from 26 percent in ‘98-’99 to 24.1 percent in ‘99-’00.

QCIA has consistently maintained that it is not interested in placing blame and that the gap is a national problem that must be acknowledged in order for it to be closed. QCIA has proposed to District 30 that it act as a model district in addressing what has come to be a national issue by convening a task force to close the educational achievement gap composed of outside educational experts, Queensbridge parents, local clergy and District 30 personnel to analyze data, conduct focus groups and research strategies that have been successful in closing the gap. The task force would work with the superintendent to develop a close the gap action plan. While the gap continues to grow, neither Superintendent Gimondo nor the Community School Board will acknowledge that a gap exists. Both maintain that they will not take action until they have compiled the student level data and analyzed whether it demonstrates an achievement gap.

Yvette Grissom is a parent organizer with Queensbridge Community In Action.