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tracking, ability g rouping and equity article

"This provocative video calls for School Administrators to accept their leadership responsibility in the mission of getting our kids to proficiency. Our children can do it--how are we going to help get them there? Featuring Dr. Jeff Howard, Founder and President of The Efficacy Institute."

"More and more people in education agree on the importance of learning stuff other than academics. But no one agrees on what to call that "stuff". There are least seven major overlapping terms in play"

DLT/BLT/TBT literacy resources related to students with low incidence

"CompetencyWorks has unveiled a new report, "Implementing Competency Education in K-12 Systems: Insights from Local Leaders," designed to help districts move from traditional educational models to personalized and competency-based environments in an effort to meet individual student needs."

"As researchers Ben Castleman and Lindsay Page have shown, a few short text messages to an incoming freshman can mean the difference between attending college and staying at home. Once college has begun, a few minutes of writing by a low-income student of color can mean the difference between passing a class and dropping out."

Additional information to parents about their child's missing assignments and grades helps parents motivate their children more effectively and changes parents' beliefs about their child's effort in school. Parents also become more aware that their child does not tell them enough about their academic progress. These mechanisms drive an almost .20 standard deviation improvement in math standardized test scores and GPA for high school students. T

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%.

"NBCDI's State of the Black Child initiative is focused on creating resources that challenge the prevailing discourse about Black children-one which overemphasizes limitations and deficits and does not draw upon the considerable strengths, assets and resilience demonstrated by our children, families, and communities."

"The ability to READ, WRITE, and COMMUNICATE connects people and empowers them to achieve things they never thought possible. It truly is the basis of who we are and how we interact with the world."

"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."

"To work with the students directly, we rely on the energy and dedication of our corps members-a diverse group of educated, young adults who serve full-time for 10 months in City Year's partner schools to provide extra support for students, teachers, and the school. "

My son, Derek, did a year of service work with City Year after he graduated and then some additional work with Freedom Schools program - both out of Columbus. Now he continues to help inner city youth. He loves the kids.....he is working with 3rd graders and they call him Mr. Derek!

"The report, Accountability for College and Career Readiness: Developing a New Paradigm, draws on research, actual practice of states and nations, and input from leading policymakers, researchers, administrators, and practitioners (see list of advisors, below) to develop a vision of this new accountability, which is portrayed in an imagined "51st state." The report was released jointly by the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education at Stanford University and the National Center for Innovation in Education (NCIE) at the University of Kentucky. It was authored by Darling-Hammond, NCIE Executive Director Gene Wilhoit, and NCIE staff member, Linda Pittenger."

"Each snapshot also has initial ideas for how families, educators, and communities can make targeted and innovative improvements to support the whole child and help students become productive adults and engaged citizens. ASCD is developing the snapshots annually to feature the most recently available data and to permit year-over-year comparisons."

"VISIBLE LEARNING: WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT GROUPING STUDENTS?"