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Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education's leveling effects.

The Equity Alliance at Arizona State University is one of 10 regional Equity Assistance Centers in the U.S. that are funded by the U.S. Department of Education to support the work of the Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Justice in enforcing federal civil rights laws. While the efforts of the Office of Civil Rights have improved educational opportunities for formerly excluded and marginalized students, there is still much work to be done to address achievement gaps and to ensure that all students are provided with high-quality education (Artiles, Rueda, Salazar, & Higareda, 2005; Donovan & Cross, 2002; Klingner, Méndez Barletta, & Hoover, 2008; Losen & Orfield, 2002).

In the debate over the achievement gap between white and minority children in Connecticut, the overrepresentation of black and Hispanic children in special education classes is among the most sensitive subjects.

This resource is the web site for the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt). NCCRESt provides technical assistance and professional development to close the achievement gap between students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their peers, and reduce inappropriate referrals to special education.

The effort to provide an equitable education to all students has led to extensive research on the effects of racial and ethnic differences, and of gender, on access, learning, and achievement. It has also led to great debate about which student population has been most shortchanged, with the argument about gender inequities perhaps most fierce. The impact of ethnicity on gender differences had been only minimally considered by researchers, however, until the Educational Testing Service (ETS) began looking at the topic several years ago, first with a study on test taking (Willingham & Cole, 1997) and now with a report on a variety of education and employment measures (Coley, 2001). The ETS publications, while demonstrating generally that there are "more similarities than variations in gender differences among racial/ethnic groups" (Coley, 2001, p. 3) present statistics showing some interesting twists in the way the differences are manifested. They also raise some questions about educational equity that transcend the issue of gender fairness. Thus, as part of an ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education series consisting of facts about specific student groups, this digest presents highlights from the education findings in Richard Coley's Differences in the Gender Gap: Comparisons Across Racial/Ethnic Groups in Education and Work.

"Since its passage in 1972, Title IX has spawned many changes. More girls than ever are playing sports. Doors have opened for them to take advanced math and science courses. Pregnant and parenting students have more educational opportunities. But most experts and educators say-and the data confirm-that gender equality has yet to be achieved. In this collection, Education Week examines the landmark federal law's history, progress, and remaining barriers. "

The United States experienced phenomenal growth in the number of English-language learners over the first decade of the 21st century, expanding the need in many public schools to provide special language instruction.