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By Sarah Nagem

snagem@salisburypost.com

Mirroring long-standing trends, white students in Rowan-Salisbury schools did better on math and reading exams last school year than their black and Hispanic peers, according to figures released by the state.

The local performance results fall in line with the statewide results, which show a major gap in student proficiency ratings between ethnicities.

In the Rowan-Salisbury School System, 35.7 percent of black students in grades three through eight tested at or above grade level on the math exam last school year.

Less than 52 percent of Hispanic students in those grades tested proficient in math.

That compares with 70.1 percent of white students who tested at or above grade level in math.

Reading scores tell a similar story, although the number of students who passed the test fell statewide because of changes to the exam.

Less than 27 percent of black students in grades three through eight made the grade in reading, while 31.5 percent of Hispanics passed.

Among white students, 56.7 percent tested proficient.

Schools Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom said the results came as no surprise. White students have historically tested better than minority students.

The gaps were about the same among Rowan-Salisbury students during the 2006-2007 school year.

"We have paid quite a bit of attention to that, particularly in the last couple of years," Grissom said.

Since the federal No Child Left Behind Act was put in place in 2001, Grissom said, schools have been concentrating on how to help all students make the grade.

No Child Left Behind sets the same standards for all students, even those with disabilities.

"We have been focusing on getting our test scores up over all," Grissom said.

Ten Rowan-Salisbury schools — fewer than half — met federal standards last school year.

Schools did better based on the state accountability program. More than 80 percent of Rowan-Salisbury schools met growth targets.

(See accompanying story and graphs for more on federal and state results.)

A positive shift in test scores overall can allow school leaders to re-think what's happening among student subgroups, Grissom said.

"Now we really need to look closely at closing the gaps between the minority and non-minority students," she said.

Dr. Rebecca Smith, assistant superintendent for curriculum, is taking the lead in a newly formed closing-the-achievement-gap committee for the Rowan-Salisbury system.

The group, which is made up of school leaders, church officials, a representative from Catawba College and others, met for the first time last week.

"I said, 'We can't pretend this doesn't happen,' " Smith said she expressed during the meeting. "And we have to have a sense of urgency about closing these achievement gaps."

Smith said finding out why minority students perform worse on tests isn't easy.

"You can't make a general statement," she said. "Everyone's situation is different."

Rowan-Salisbury school leaders aren't the only ones facing this issue.

Black and Hispanic students performed worse than white students in Kannapolis City Schools on math and reading tests last year.

But the gaps aren't quite as wide in Kannapolis schools.

There, 69.5 percent of white students in elementary and middle school tested at or above grade level in math.

That compares to almost 47 percent of black students and a little more than 55 percent of Hispanic students.

Rowan-Salisbury schools and Kannapolis schools both failed to reach statewide performance averages for these three student subgroups.

Across North Carolina, 80.6 percent of white students in grades three through eight were proficient in math.

Black students fell almost 30 percentage points behind their white peers. Hispanic students were more than 18 percentage points behind.

Smith said she doesn't simply look at socio-economics for answers about gaps. Many students, including herself, have overcome the obstacle of poverty, she said.

Even so, the numbers show many poor students aren't making the grade during tests.

In about half of Rowan-Salisbury schools, students in the economically disadvantaged subgroup for No Child Left Behind failed to make the grade in math.

Smith said the school system is dedicated to finding answers.

"There's a lot of work to be done," she said.

For starters, she said, teachers and school leaders can do a better job of understanding students' cultural differences and the hardships of poverty.

Some parents can't be as involved in their children's education because of circumstances beyond their control, Smith said.

Maybe they can't attend PTA meetings because they work three jobs, she said. Maybe they aren't able to attend a parent-teacher conference because they don't have transportation to get there.

To help narrow the gaps, Grissom said, teachers can start concentrating on individual students instead of the class as a whole.

A student's ethnicity shouldn't come into play at all, she said.

The committee plans to meet again in January.