{"id":12810,"date":"2012-08-20T07:58:58","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T11:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=12810"},"modified":"2012-08-20T15:24:03","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T19:24:03","slug":"achievement-gap-part-3-mission-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2012\/08\/20\/achievement-gap-part-3-mission-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"Achievement Gap, Part 3: Mission Impossible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: In the past two parts of this series, we examined the differences in achievement at the elementary, middle<\/a> and high school levels<\/a>. Here we take a deeper look at the causes and solutions for the gap.<\/em><\/p>\n

No one in the country has a comprehensive solution for closing achievement gaps. Yet, last week, the school board approved a new strategic plan<\/a> that states in part, \u201cacademic achievement gaps can and will be eliminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, Wake was often considered at the forefront of eliminating gaps<\/a>, largely due to efforts layered on top of the former diversity policy. Today, the district is experimenting with new solutions.<\/p>\n

The Renaissance Schools program was the most successful last year. It funneled $1 million of extra federal money into each of five high-poverty elementary schools to pay for teacher bonuses, innovative programs and equipment.<\/p>\n

Some of those schools saw very strong gains<\/a> for traditionally vulnerable groups, but critics question the sustainability of putting extra money into high-poverty schools.<\/p>\n

Saturday tutorials, longer school days, math and literacy coaches, an effective teaching taskforce, and targeted teaching and assessments are just a few of the other initiatives in the ether.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what you do, you\u2019re not going to find a smoking gun,\u201d said Michael Maher with NC State University\u2019s College of Education.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Record\u2019s investigation uncovered endless programs designed to close the achievement gap, and many of them prove extremely effective.<\/p>\n

But frequently the themes that emerge for closing the gap are intangible: getting community buy-in, changing systemic culture and a clear, goal-oriented focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you pull the culture together, the resources, the expectations and you do the planning,\u201d said Superintendent Tony Tata, \u201cyou begin to get momentum in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the current rate of momentum, it could take 15 years to eliminate the proficiency gaps between economically disadvantaged and economically stable students in elementary and middle school. In high school, where economically disadvantaged students spiked in growth last year, it could take just six.<\/p>\n

[media-credit name=”Karen Tam” align=”aligncenter” width=”600″]\"\"<\/a>[\/media-credit]

Karen Tam<\/p>

Students stand outside Southeast Raleigh High school, where the achievement gap has closed in recent years.<\/p><\/div>Cause and Effect<\/strong>
\n\u201cLet\u2019s think about the achievement gap in terms of what causes it,\u201d Maher said.<\/p>\n

Student turnover rate, the racial and socioeconomic makeup of a school, and lack of access to good teachers, enriching activities, and pre-kindergarten education are just a few of the things Maher said tend to exacerbate the gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of it is just the culture created at home,\u201d said Paige Elliot, a member of Wake\u2019s newly formed Effective Teaching Framework Taskforce.<\/p>\n

Elliot is entering her first year as an assistant principal and has spent the past 15 years teaching English.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some homes education is not emphasized as much as in others,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019ve never been rewarded for learning, you may not realize it\u2019s working for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elliot also emphasizes that much of the achievement gap, in her experience, is related to the financial and personal burdens families face.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, she stresses that each child is different, and understanding those differences is the key to helping children succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing is building relationships. It\u2019s not very measurable, but something that\u2019s so important: getting to know students\u2019 strengths, weaknesses, their home life, what they enjoy, don\u2019t enjoy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Both Elliot and Maher, himself a former teacher, believe the gap can ultimately be closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat kind of teacher would I be if I didn\u2019t?\u201d Elliot said.<\/p>\n

Solutions<\/strong>
\nOf all the ways to deal with the gap, differentiated instruction, Elliott said, is one of the most successful. Essentially, it means teaching to different types of learners in a single classroom.<\/p>\n

It can often mean different lesson plans and different tests for different children, Elliot said, because each has a different understanding of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s not a lot of work and it\u2019s not frustrating,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous amount of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often, teachers might have a lesson plan they\u2019re very comfortable with and that works well with certain students, but not with everybody.<\/p>\n

Elliott, who was Wake County teacher of the year in 2007-08 and won the same award at the state level the next year, differentiated her teaching early in her career. But the method is only now coming to be common practice in Wake County, school officials said.<\/p>\n

Assessments are also getting better and more frequent, said Pam Kinsey-Barker, an Area Superintendent who has worked for Wake schools in various capacities since the ’90s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have evolved to even more sophisticated data collection,\u201d she said in an interview earlier this month. \u201cWe very closely monitor all subgroups.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they monitor subgroups, teams of teachers called professional learning teams come up with solutions for reaching students who aren\u2019t learning certain material.<\/p>\n

And this leads to the next step in closing the gap: \u201ca tremendous focus on monitoring and interventions,\u201d Kinsey-Barker said.<\/p>\n

But if these strategies are effective and truly becoming the rule, not just the exception for extraordinary teachers, why does the achievement gap barely seem to budge?<\/p>\n

Internal school system reporting as well as that done by the Record<\/a> shows that until last year, the achievement gap remained stagnant for some time.<\/p>\n

During that same time, the school system has also experienced many changes.<\/p>\n

Intense growth, budget cuts, larger class sizes and layoffs from central office and clerical staff down to teacher assistants are some of those that can be quantified.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stuff that is on Tony Tata\u2019s plate is unprecedented,\u201d former Wake superintendent Bill McNeal told the Record in an interview earlier this month.<\/p>\n

McNeal said it\u2019s unfair to second-guess someone in Tata\u2019s position, especially when, like McNeal, you know what Tata is going through.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is trying to make decisions about, \u2018How am I going to house these kids? How am I going to satisfy all the requirements and requests of the community? How can I make certain that every school is a great school? How do I make certain that every school has effective teachers and effective leaders?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

McNeal was voted National Superintendent of the Year in 2004-05, largely because he was able to narrow achievement gaps through a five-year plan that sought to bring 95 percent of all children up to proficiency in reading and math.<\/p>\n

He credits the success of the plan \u2014<\/span> which didn\u2019t quite reach the 95 percent mark \u2014<\/span> to first generating internal support, second getting community buy-in and finally a laser-like focus on the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne goal. No foolin’ around,\u201d McNeal said.<\/p>\n

He was fooling around so little that he tied his and other administrators\u2019 salaries to hitting the benchmarks.<\/p>\n

But that was then. If Wake County\u2019s current climate can be defined by one quality it\u2019s turmoil, not unity.<\/p>\n

While all parties claim to agree on the goal of having all children succeed, the questions of how to get there and how much it costs have stolen the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the question is, what does the community want?\u201d McNeal said. \u201cAnd then given what the community wants, what is the community willing to pay for?\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll take a closer look at the five-year plan as our series continues next week.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Closing the achievement gap seems like an impossible mission, yet many in the school system believe it can be done. In this third part to our series we take a broad look at what works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23,55],"tags":[823,852,849,850,851,861,848],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}