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CLOSING ACHIEVEMENT GAPS

          Many other large school systems, in cities ranging from Boston to Chattanooga and from Aldine, Texas to Long Beach, California are also making significant gains in raising overall achievement and closing achievement gaps.  Education Trust calls these schools the “high flying” schools.   Here are some of their characteristics.

•Extensive use of local and state standards to design effective curricula and instruction, to evaluate student work, and to evaluate teachers

•Increased instructional time targeted to reading and math

•Investment in professional development for teachers and leaders that is focused on instructional practice

•Comprehensive systems to monitor the performance of individual students and to intervene before at-risk students fall behind

•Parent involvement in helping students meet standards

•Use of formative assessments as a frequent part of teaching and learning

•Holding all adults accountable for student learning

•Allocation of resources to close funding gaps

Effective strategies

•It is critical that teachers connect reading and writing across all content areas.

•Despite research of the importance of regular writing, it still gets short shrift in the classroom.

•It is critical that teachers connect reading and writing across all content areas.

•Despite research on the value of regular writing, it still gets short shrift in class.

•Teachers must be able to alter their instructional practices to meet the needs of their students

•Teachers must know how to develop ongoing formative assessments and use the results and other performance data to guide instruction.

•High quality professional development is an essential part of closing achievement gaps.

•A Teachers must set high expectations for every student and not accept excuses for failure

•During the early years, teachers must provide the instructional scaffolding that systematically build children’s phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, reading fluency, and writing.

Last modified: 08/22/06

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