An “achievement gap” refers to the discrepancy in academic achievement between groups of students. It shows up in grades, test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college completion rates. Today's children perform better than those nearly 40 years ago, yet there is still a large achievement gap among elementary school students. (Campbell) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The achievement gap is a multifaceted problem that can be examined from multiple perspectives. At the federal level, we have the No Child Left Behind Act that requires schools to meet annual goals for improvement in specific academic areas. (Education Week) Basically, schools are responsible for students falling behind. Due to factors such as achievement gaps, many schools and districts are at risk. The achievement gap is also fueled by factors such as the teaching gap. Students in the United States do not perform as well as those in other countries, perhaps due to the fact that teachers here face many obstacles. US teachers are faced with larger class sizes. You are expected to teach more than 20 or more students at a time and it is difficult to equally distribute your attention to all those people at once. Additionally, teachers in the United States spend more hours each week than teachers in other countries directly instructing students. This makes it more difficult for our teachers to find time to work on creating curriculum, learning new teaching methods, marking homework, working one-on-one with students and connecting with parents. If we valued our teachers more, they would have more time to put together assignments that would help our students succeed in the classroom. White students and students from racial/ethnic groups along with students of different genders are experiencing this separation in achievement. On standardized tests, many students of color consistently score well below their white counterparts in every subject. In both math and reading the average black student ranks in the 13th percentile, meaning 87% of white students score higher than the average black student. (National Center for Education Statistics)Even at age nine, there is a 26-point gap in math and reading between black and white students. Although the gap has narrowed since the 1970s, it is still too large. Another factor in the achievement gap for blacks and whites is school composition. On average, white students attend schools that are only 9% black, while black students attend schools that are 48% black. Schools with the highest density of black students tended to be the lowest performing ones. Interestingly, while black and white student achievement was lower in schools with higher densities of black students than in schools with lower densities, the achievement gap was no different. There was also a consistent gap between boys and girls in reading and math. In 2012, boys scored higher than girls in math, while girls scored better than boys in reading. By the fourth year, a larger percentage of boys reach the advanced level while girls only reach the basic level. In reading, girls outperform boys in elementary, middle and high school. Although the gap between,.