Closing the academic achievement gap: A system dynamics study

The academic achievement gap in the United States education system persists despite significant investments and efforts to correct it. Research reveals potential functions – priorities, readiness, expectation and motivation – performed by four stakeholders – students, teachers, schools and parents. A system dynamics simulation is proposed that captures the stakeholders and their functions to facilitate the exploration of potential interventions to close the achievement gap. We demonstrate the development of a working simulation when important information (known quantitative relationships, scales, and formulations) are not available. Two experiments are conducted to 1) identify which stakeholders have the greatest impact, and 2) explore the effect of combined interventions on closing the achievement gap. Simulation results suggest a ranking among individual stakeholder interventions where student interventions have the greatest effect followed by teachers, and then parents. Results further indicate that combining stakeholder interventions at moderate levels have the greatest impact on reducing the achievement gap.