The Achievement Gap Of The Bus Picks You Up And You Are...

The bus picks you up and you are now presented with two options, keep riding and go to school, or hop off at the next stop and join your rebellious friends. It is the choices and influences similar to this scenario that has created what is called the achievement gap. The achievement gap is a separation between where a student â€Å"should be† and where a student is in respect to their academic achievement. This is based off of class attendance, college acceptance rates, and high school dropout rates. Simple literacy tests along with other test scores assist in gauging the basic levels of achievement. Are U.S. schools failing? Simply, no. The U.S. is failing. The U.S. is failing economically, socially, and morally. How is this shown?†¦show more content†¦This tree now has so much potential; producing buds that will make flowers, and eventually producing a juicy, crunchy apple. Ideally, the life of an apple would follow this life cycle and go on to make more se ed, yet, this is not always the case. Misformed, bruised, infected, and in many cases, uncompleted; an apple will not reach certain stages of its life. It takes outside factors to succeed. A more detailed breakdown of each layer of the the school system can help analyze which aspects are failing. Starting with the teachers, the nutrients in the soil; the seed is introduced to the first factor affecting student learning and progress. The No Child Left Behind initiative has accumulated some bugs. Rather than improving opportunities so that each child is receiving equal chances to close the achievement gap, the outcomes of sometimes misrepresented data is being monitored and recorded. This means, while the purpose of educational proposals are to close the achievement gap, this act had unexpected opposite effects. This is due in part to the way schools are graded, which is based off results of standardized test scores and similar tracking identifications like attendance (Educators Share, 2015). After the results are reported to the state, a grade is administered to the school district and teachers. If proficiency is not met for two years, changes can be made at