ABSTRACT
The “achievement gap” in American education is longstanding and much discussed. Students from minority backgrounds and those who are impoverished are the subjects of these discussions, as it is these students who most often lag behind their peers educationally. In particular, the gap between the performances of Hispanic, African American, and American Indian students and their white and Asian peers has endured for decades and has been largely intractable. This is no surprise as these students not only enter the educational system with significant cultural and linguistic differences from mainstream expectations, but also are disproportionately poor. It is no secret that students who are culturally and linguistically different and those who are impoverished are least well served in our educational system. When a student is both poor and a cultural-linguistic minority, these educational failings are magnified.
