Lost in the education reform rhetoric is the quiet, steady progress some area school districts are making to close the achievement gap. That's the education term used to describe the difference in test scores between minority and white students. Typically, black and Hispanic children perform below white students on standardized tests.
Federal law mandates public schools to close that gap. By 2014, all students are expected to perform at grade level. Statewide in last year's ISTEP scores, there was a 28 percentage point gap between white and black eighth-graders in the English portion of the exam and 32 percentage point gap in math. Data demonstrate the gap widens as students get older.
In Lake County, the Merrillville Community School Corp., which has a 53 percent black population and 20 percent white enrollment, is narrowing the gap on test scores and the graduation rate.
School officials credit extra attention and more time spent on lower performing students.
Gov. Mitch Daniels, however, is not patient. The governor's focus in this legislative session is on education reform because he thinks the current system is holding Indiana back from expanding jobs and growing its economy.
Daniels is supporting a host of controversial reforms to make the system better. He wants merit pay for teachers, and vouchers for parents so they can send their children to the school of their choice. Vouchers would hurt public schools like Merrillville by taking money away if parents pull their kids out for other options. Expect a huge uproar as well when public dollars are routed to religious schools.
While some measure of accountability should rest with teachers who are on the front lines of education, there hasn't been a whisper about another education gap. Indiana falls behind most states with a school start age of 7 and is one of eight states that don't finance early learning programs.
Erasing that gap costs money; it isn't likely to happen.