Underrepresented Learners and Excellence Gaps in the United States

Who are underrepresented learners and why should we care about Excellence Gaps?

Underrepresented learners are all the students who don't have as many people that are able to speak on their behalf as some others do and have a disadvantage. A lot of these learners include people of different races, lower income students, students with disabilities, foreign students, and students with different sexualities. Although a majority of the population in the United States is becoming more diverse and including all of these differences they are still being underrepresented and are creating excellence gaps.

Excellence gaps refer to the level of academic performance between groups of students. It is these achievement gaps of performance at the highest level.

 https://cis.org/Report/Immigrant-Population-Hit-Highest-Percentage-Ever-8-Years
(Immigrants projected to increase in the United States)

https://urbanland.uli.org/industry-sectors/american-demography-bursting-diversity-yet-baby-bust/

(Difference in races are projected to increase in the United States)

We should care about excellence gaps for three reasons, as listed by Jacob Hardesty in Excellence gaps: what they are, why they are bad, and how smart contexts can address them … or make them worse

1.) As listed above, the United States's demographic is rapidly changing. The most rapidly growing aspects in the demographic (ex.foreigners) are scoring below average on tests (Pg.4). This calls into question the sustainability of the United States and where their priorities are.

2.) Larger excellence gaps lead to larger income disparities. With the larger income disparities the probability of children coming from lower income homes are more likely. More students from the lower income houses are predicted to on average have test scores that are below average compared to other students, creating larger excellence gaps (pg. 5). These excellence gaps then lead to larger income disparity and the cycle continues. This can hurt the United States's economy and growth.

3.) People need to acknowledge excellence gaps for moral reasons. Everyone should have the opportunity to develop talents and knowledge. With all the organizations put into place such as No Child Left Behind, it is clear that is a priority for the U.S. to allow equal opportunities for everyone and this cycle does not allow that (Pg.5).