“Middle School Is Gonna Cost My Kid a Career in STEM”: Understanding the Implications of the Excellence Gap in K-12 Education

Abstract

Like other administrators serving low-socioeconomic areas and/or minoritized populations of students, Assistant Principal Mackenzie Riley is struggling to ensure systems are in place to ensure all students in their building, regardless of ability level, have access to high-quality instruction. This case examines how efforts to close the “Achievement Gap” in a suburban middle school are at the same time widening the “Excellence Gap” for some high-achieving students of color, and the events that take place when an angry parent calls administration out on the issue.