The So-Called Achievement Gap Between White and Black Students on 2008 NAEP Visual Arts Assessment

• In Event: Discussing Educational Policy and Implications of Efficacy in the Arts as School Subject Areas: NAEP to Teacher-Made Assessment to Subject Area Growth

Abstract

Cross-tabulations for the reported achievement gap locate scores for White and Black student on 2008 NAEP Arts. Panelist poses a new perspective: Do attitudes, racial identity, cultural experiences, or even exposure to the visual arts play an explanatory role in overall student performance on standardized tests? A large body of research indicates that cultural background correlates with achievement gaps; and, with NCLB legislation still in effect this area merits close examination in all the subject areas.
Could poor performance by various racial groups on the NAEP arts assessment reflect attitudes toward art study where art is not perceived as a life skill and the subject not considered valuable for future use? Could society contribute to a lack of enthusiasm for arts study with its current emphasis placed on success in English, Writing, Sciences, and Mathematics? The NCLB act regulates states to yearly administer tests that measured how well students perform in specified subjects at certain grade levels. Additionally, have students, along with school leaders and principals, emphasized a group of primary studies due to graduation requirements? In 2007 and 2008, IES reported that greater numbers of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaskan Native students attended high poverty schools than White or Pacific Islander students. Blacks and Hispanics represented the greatest enrollment. High poverty schools increased over a decade from 12% to 20% (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe.statement/s5.asp). These are factors to consider in achievement gaps.
Using responses from the student questionnaire in 2008 for visual art, the following variables were investigated using cross tabulations afforded online for public use by NAEP statistical tools:
• Race/Ethnicity as checked Black or checked White
• Difficulty level of art test items
• Effort on the test
• Importance of success on the art test
• Students liked or did not like to do artwork
The average reporting score for art was computed on a scale of 0-300. The school identified sample for visual arts included 700 black students and 2133 white students. Students sometimes indicated their race/ethnicity differently from the school level record with 595 identifying themselves as Black and 1151 indicating White.
Queried about the difficulty of the NAEP visual arts test in comparison to other subject area tests, cross tabulation showed higher Responding scores for White students (158) than Black students indicated (132); a 26 point gap appeared between groups. Those indicating that the test was” about as hard as others”, recorded a larger gap (159 for White as compared to 126 for Black). When asked was the art test “harder than other tests” no score was available for Black students (failing to meet the 62 responses necessary for computing an average score); White students average score for this answer on Responding, using the cross tabulation feature, was 163. When all answers were considered together, the differences between groups lose significance. Separately, these answers and findings for other variables offer considerable insight into test dynamics associated with racial or ethnic identity.

Author

• Deitra Rena Davis, William Carey University