Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Latino students are making strides to close education achievement gaps in the Beehive State.
Educators say proficiency ratings are going up for students across the board in Utah. But, improvements among one demographic are outpacing other groups.
"We're seeing not only an improvement in student achievement, but we're definitely seeing an improvement with our Hispanic population," said State Office of Education Associate Superintendent Judy Park.
She said the improvement is not drastic, only a few percentage points. But, Park also said we have to consider the fact that the Latino population is growing in Utah.
"For us to be able to still show gains and a slight narrowing of that achievement gap while that population is increasing, it shows that there is some good improvement in Utah," she explained.
That's not to say more improvements can't be made. Data collected by the state shows achievement gaps are still there.
For instance, language arts proficiency is at 84 percent among all students, overall. But, it's at 68 percent among Latino students. Park said language barriers may still be a big factor into why these gaps exist at all, especially for kids whose first language is not English.
"For them, they have a more difficult time and a greater struggle in trying to not only learn the language but, at the same time, learn the subject matter," she said.
