Group items tagged

"Baruti Kafele makes the case that the "attitude gap" that often affects underperforming students can only be closed if educators first help students develop the will to strive for excellence. In this thought-provoking webinar based on his latest book, Closing the Attitude Gap, Kafele offers practical strategies and illustrative anecdotes drawn from his 20-plus years as a teacher and principal in inner-city schools. "

"The Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) is a university-wide effort initiated by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) to focus academic research, public education, and innovative outreach activities toward eliminating achievement gaps. "

"Now there's a study that appears to show that a simple one-hour exercise can halve the racial achievement gap, while also making minority students healthier and happier. Although this claim sounds as preposterous as a pitch for a potion to cure baldness or to erase wrinkles, it's made in a recent issue of the journal Science."

"The intervention, a brief in-class writing assignment, significantly improved the grades of African American students and reduced the racial achievement gap by 40%. These results suggest that the racial achievement gap, a major social concern in the United States, could be ameliorated by the use of timely and targeted social-psychological interventions."

"Along with reading, science, and mathematics classes, every student here at Haut Gap Middle School takes a course in how to be a Haut Gap student. For most students, the class is 40 minutes a day for nine weeks-even for returning students. But it can last 18 weeks for students who need extra time to nail concepts such as how to own up to mistakes, accept feedback, and apologize appropriately."

"In Ohio, though, wide race gaps persist even on a level economic field."

School readiness, a multi-dimensional concept,1 conveys important advantages. Children who enter school with early skills, such as a basic knowledge of math and reading, are more likely than their peers to experience later academic success,2,3 attain higher levels of education, and secure employment.4 Absence of these and other skills may contribute to even greater disparities down the road. For example, one study found that gaps in math, reading, and vocabulary skills evident at elementary school entry explained at least half of the racial gap in high school achievement scores.5

"ETS is deeply committed to closing the achievement gap through rigorous research that supports action, practical tools for real-life solutions, and the sharing of ideas, strategies and resources."

Video from PBS - "In 1998, when Massachusetts first implemented new standardized testing that was required for graduation, administrators at Brockton High School learned that more than 75 percent of their 4,000 students would fail to graduate. But over the last decade a small group of dedicated teachers have changed the way every class is taught. They began a schoolwide literacy program to reinforce literacy skills in every class, including math, science and even gym. The transformation at Brockton has been remarkable: Failure rates for that state test have dropped to 6 percent for English, and the school was featured in a 2009 report on exceptional public high schools by the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University."

"This book aims to supply a few ideas and activities that could be useful for a youngster who uses AAC, by: Providing a reason to make sure that the Talker is always out of its bag, charged up, and on the table/wheelchair mount ready for daily use; Filling up some of those gaps in the school day with constructive and fun activities Helping the youngster to learn and practise - in other words, use - his or her Talker to enjoy interactions with others and build up useful social and communicative experiences."

"I have to admit that two years ago, I didn't, in general, use the terms access, accessible, or accessibility as a frame for beliefs about learning. Of course, as with most educators, I've been quick to embed phrases such as learning for all, eliminating achievement gaps, and opening the door for all learners into my edu-speak, but I'm shifting how I think about what accessible learning for all actually looks like."

report from ETC 2010

"This report examines, from the perspective of young people themselves, the roles that relationships with adults and peers play in decisions about staying in, leaving and returning to high school. Building on previous studies, including last year's Don't Call Them Dropouts, this report offers new insights about how support from adults and peers can help to close the remaining gaps between those who graduate from high school on time and those who don't."

"Children, like adults, learn concrete words more readily than abstract words.  A way to close the vocabulary gap for students (especially English Learners and students of poverty) is to support them in connecting written words and the concrete objects these words represent.  TextProject Word Pictures provides a vault of carefully chosen pictures to assist educators in making such connections."

When people perceive themselves as similar to others, greater liking and closer relationships typically result. In the first randomized field experiment that leverages actual similarities to improve real-world relationships, we examined the affiliations between 315 ninth grade students and their 25 teachers. Students in the treatment condition received feedback on five similarities that they shared with their teachers; each teacher received parallel feedback regarding about half of his/her ninth grade students. Five weeks after our intervention, those in the treatment conditions perceived greater similarity with their counterparts. Furthermore, when teachers received feedback about their similarities with specific students, they perceived better relationships with those students, and those students earned higher course grades. Exploratory analyses suggest that these effects are concentrated within relationships between teachers and their "underserved" students. This brief intervention appears to close the achievement gap at this school by over 60%.

Key Findings "Teacher leaders can immediately boost student learning in their schools. Some 70 percent of participants achieved notable gains in student achievement across classrooms they supervised during their training year. Teacher leaders can quickly develop and apply critical leadership skills. Participants made significant, measureable gains on high-impact skills, such as using student data and coaching to improve instruction. Teacher leaders can fill gaps in the leadership pipeline. After one year of Emerging Leaders, 80 percent of participants who were accepted to a principal apprenticeship started that training having mastered key leadership skills. The report includes recommendations for steps stakeholders can take to unleash the potential of teacher leadership to support student success."

Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters: A KIDS COUNT Special Report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation Children who read on grade level by the end of third grade are more successful in school, work, and in life. This KIDS COUNT special report affirms a commitment by the Casey Foundation to help ensure that all students are proficient in reading by the end of third grade and help narrow the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children.

"Effective Classroom Assessment: Linking Assessment with Instruction Successful middle schools engage students in all aspects of their learning. There are many strategies for accomplishing this. One such strategy is student-led conferences. As a classroom teacher or administrator, how do you ensure that the information shared in a student-led conference provides a balanced picture of the student's strengths and weaknesses? The answer to this is to balance both summative and formative classroom assessment practices and information gathering about student learning. Assessment is a huge topic that encompasses everything from statewide accountability tests to district benchmark or interim tests to everyday classroom tests. 4 In order to grapple with what seems to be an over use of testing, educators should frame their view of testing as assessment and that assessment is information. The more information we have about students, the clearer the picture we have about achievement or where gaps may occur."

Bridging the gap between teacher evaluation and student achievement After nearly five decades of study around effective teaching and learning practices, Dr. Robert Marzano expands his acclaimed work by releasing the Art and Science of Teaching Causal Teacher Evaluation Model. The first of its kind, this teacher evaluation model identifies the direct cause and effect relationship between teaching practices and student achievement to help teachers and leaders make the most informed decisions that yield the greatest benefits for their students. With the Marzano Model, districts can transform your teacher evaluation system from an exercise in compliance into an effective engine of incremental growth, one that reflects parallel gains between teacher assessment and student performance.