ABSTRACT
Evidence of differential achievement for students from different ethnic backgrounds is not limited to the UK. In the USA, an ongoing representative sample survey of student achievement, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is carried out covering core subject areas. In 2000, a national assessment of mathematics was undertaken involving fourth-, eighth-and twelfth-grade students (typical ages 9, 13 and 17 years) (Braswell et al. 2001). In all three grades, average scores of White students were higher than those of Black, Hispanic and American Indian students. At grade 12, the average score of Asian/Pacific Islander students was higher than the scores of White, Black and Hispanic students. The score gaps between White and Black students, and between White and Hispanic students, were large at every grade. The national assessment found that there was no evidence of any narrowing of the racial/ethnic-group score gaps since 1990.
