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44 pages

English

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In a nation that prides itself on providing equal opportunity for all, too many low-income and minority children are falling behind their peers in school. In an increasingly competitive global arena, the United States cannot afford to ignore this widening achievement gap. What can be done to close it?This issue book presents three possible approaches for dealing with this problem:Raise Expectations and Demand AccountabilityAfrican Americans, Hispanic, and Native American students in many schools have become victims of what President George W. Bush calls ""the soft bigotry of low expectations."" If we are to close the achievement gap, we must push for increased academic performance of all students, and make educators accountable for the results.Close the Spending GapSchools in low-income, high-minority districts often lack science labs, computers, up-to-date textbooks, and well-qualified teachers who most often choose to work in better-paying, better-equipped suburban school districts. We cannot realistically expect more of poor, minority students until these resource and funding inequities are addressed.Address the Root CausesProblems that show up as poor academic performance begin long before low-income minority children come to school. And they cannot be remedied unless we address underlying causes, such as unresolved health problems, poor nutrition, stressful living conditions, and lack of parental support, which are the source of these deficits.

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Sociologie, société et politique

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Publié par	National Issues Forums Institute
Date de parution	01 janvier 2007
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781946206138
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0150€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Preface
T his policy guide for citizens describes how the academic performance of many African American, Hispanic, and Native American students lags behind that of their Asian American and white counterparts. The problem occurs in virtually every type of school system in the United States and is often exacerbated by socioeconomic factors, such as poverty. There is widespread disagreement about what causes this problem and what to do about it.
By laying out three possible approaches to the achievement gap and presenting the advantages and disadvantages of each, the guide is well suited for use in classrooms and public forums facilitated by a moderator in a respectful, nonpartisan manner. When used in this way, the guide is an effective tool for stimulating open, authentic dialogue among diverse groups of people on this complex policy issue. Forum participants gain a deep understanding of what is at issue and the trade-offs and consequences of taking certain actions.
Too Many Children Left Behind: How Can We Close the Achievement Gap? was prepared by Kettering Foundation for use in a two-year study designed to learn how public dialogue affects understanding of this issue and influences individual and community action. Civic and religious organizations and institutions like schools, libraries, colleges, and universities are encouraged to use this and other resources—which include a special kit of materials—to organize forums and share results with the Kettering Foundation. The special kit includes guidance on organizing and moderating a forum, a sample press release, an issue guide, a starter video-DVD, and 15 copies of an 8-page version of the issue guide with questionnaires. These items are also available separately (see ordering information on the inside back cover of this booklet). To learn more about this study, log on to www.kettering.org .
Organizing a community forum may be the very first step in addressing the achievement gap for many people; for others it may be one of many steps in an ongoing process designed to improve education in their community. Whatever the circumstances, the Kettering Foundation is interested in learning about your experience with this issue. Please complete the questionnaire, which is included with each booklet, and return it to the forum moderator or mail it to Kettering Foundation, Public Education Research, 200 Commons Road, Dayton, OH 45459. If you are interested in participating in the follow-up study, complete the section of the questionnaire that will allow Kettering researchers to contact you.
Too Many Children Left Behind
How Can We Close the Achievement Gap?
CONTENT S
Too Many Children Left Behind
How Can We Close the Achievement Gap?
INTRODUCTION
Too Many Children Left Behind
In a nation that prides itself on providing equal opportunity for all, too many low-income and minority children are falling behind their peers in school. In an increasingly competitive global arena, the United States cannot afford to ignore this widening achievement gap. What can be done to close it?
APPROACH ONE
Raise Expectations and Demand Accountability
African American, Hispanic, and Native American students in many schools have become victims of what President George W. Bush calls “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” If we are to close the achievement gap, we must push for increased academic performance of all students and make educators accountable for the results.
APPROACH TWO
Close the Spending Gap
Schools in low-income, high-minority districts often lack science labs, computers, up-to-date textbooks, and well-qualified teachers, who most often choose to work in better-paying, better-equipped suburban school districts. We cannot realistically expect more of poor, minority students until these resource and funding inequities are addressed.
APPROACH THREE
Address the Root Causes
Problems that show up as poor academic performance begin long before low-income, minority children come to school. And they cannot be remedied unless we address underlying causes, such as unresolved health problems, poor nutrition, stressful living conditions, and lack of parental support, which are the source of these deficits.
Comparing Approaches
Questionnaire
INTRODUCTIO N

AP/Wide World Photos
Experts say the economic consequences of not educating all our children are enormous. The United States is already falling behind in global competitiveness, quickly losing ground to countries like China and India in preparing students for the best technological jobs .
Too Many Children Left Behind
A FEW YEARS AGO, Jane Hannaway, then director of the Education Policy Center at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., shared a personal story in lamenting the decline in the number of American kids who can do basic math:
My son, when he was in the 8th grade … I took him to take the PSAT… and so we come screeching into the parking lot and behold, we’re early. So, I pulled out—last minute, of course, probably the worst thing you can do—the instruction manual. I said, “Let’s go over a few of these items.” So, we started going over a few…. I asked him something, and it was clear: he was in the 8th grade and he didn’t know his times table. I said, “What’s nine times seven?” And he couldn’t get it. “But I can figure it out,” he told me, “because I know three times seven. Three times seven is 21, three times seven is 21, three times seven is 21; if I add up those 21s, it’s 63.” “Well that’s great,” I said. “Now what are you going to do on this timed test?” He went in and he did all right.
I called him last night. He’s now a junior in college. He’s gone through advanced calculus, done math in college, dean’s list all the way through. I called him up, and he picks up the phone in his dorm, “Yo.” I said, “Jeff, what’s nine times seven?” And he said to me, “64 or right around there.”
Hannaway knew her son was lucky. He can’t immediately and confidently answer a basic simple—math question. But it doesn’t appear to have hurt him much. He did take advanced calculus in college, and he can figure out the answer.
But many U.S. public school students are not so lucky. Far too many are leaving school unable to make change at the local McDonald’s when the computerized cash register fails. Many can’t write a readable essay, or sometimes a readable sentence. Nearly 30 percent drop out and never complete high school.
These failures are occurring in every nook and cranny of this country—in urban America, in suburban America, even in rural America. Rural school needs finally got the attention of Congress a few years ago when the Rural Education Achievement Program was passed to tackle the deficit of teachers, facilities, and resources in the area. More than 30 percent of the nation’s children attend rural schools, many in vulnerable, poverty-plagued communities in states like Mississippi and Alaska where students drop out and perform poorly in school at rates to rival urban areas.
For African American and Hispanic students, particularly those from low-income families, the situation is dire. According to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan public policy research group, those students have only a 50 percent chance of finishing high school with a diploma. Rural and low-income whites face daunting educational challenges as well.
Experts say the economic consequences of not educating these children are enormous. The United States is already falling behind in global competitiveness, quickly losing ground to countries like China and India in preparing students for the best technological jobs. U.S. students continue to do poorly on international tests for mathematics, while Asian countries excel.
Economists say the United States is losing almost $200 billion a year by failing to do enough to improve the quality of the education system. Many of those poorly educated students will end up on public assistance—or in prison.
As the educational readiness of children in the United States continues to be eclipsed by other nations, thoughtful and systemic educational and political change is badly needed to ensure that our children are educated competitively and to their potential if we are to continue to meet the economic and social challenges of the future, compete globally, and sustain a cohesive, progressive, democratic society.
Failure to undertake this task is detrimental to the nation’s ability to thrive and prosper in the twenty-first century, a time when a higher level of education is not only desirable but essential. The low-wage factory and service jobs of a generation ago are no longer readily available in this country. Many of these jobs have moved to third-world countries where U.S. businesses can often get the labor cheaper. And technology has replaced others. The U.S. economy now demands more high-skilled labor. The students who don’t get it will be left behind.
According to the National Center on Education and the Economy, by the year 2020, the United States will need 14 million more college-trained workers than it will produce. “Nowhere is college participation lower than among African American and Hispanic youth,” researchers at the center say. At the same time, they add, “nowhere is the potential to meet our nation’s need for college graduates higher.”
Communities nationwide have begun to recognize the seriousness of the situation.
Take Ithaca, New York, for example. Recently, a crowd of more than 450 adults and children gathered on a Saturday night for the annual Lift Every Voice, Tear Down the Walls concert. Two downtown churches, Calvary Baptist and St. Paul’s United Methodist, organize the event each year, with the proceeds going to support the Village at Ithaca, a not-for-profit organization that aims to close the persistent achievement gap between whites and African American, Hispanic, and other low-income students in Ithaca schools.
Addressing the achievement gap more aggressively