Council of the Great City Schools
March 2003
In its now-annual summary of student performance data in many of the nation's largest urban districts, the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) seeks to answer two fundamental questions: "Are urban schools improving academically?" and "Are urban schools closing achievement gaps?" As in the previous two editions, the answer for most districts is yes, though the challenge remains great. In looking at these data - this report is a statistician's dream - it's clear that some urban districts are making commendable academic progress but others aren't. There's plenty here to chew on - and considerable variance in available data. Dallas, for example, has data on grades 3-8 every year since 1994 and a separate section on the achievement gap. Detroit, by comparison, has data only for grades 4 and 7 in reading, and no separate breakout showing the achievement gap. Such differences expose how much work some states still have to do to align their assessment systems with the requirements of No Child Left Behind. For a copy, proceed to http://www.cgcs.org/reports/beat_the_oddsIII.html.
