Closing the Achievement Gap - Washington State School Directors ...

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Policy Recommendations1. Develop and adopt policies that express the board’s philosophy aboutequity and cultural competence. Affirm the board’s philosophy aboutequity and excellence through a statement of core beliefs that is posted inall schools. Be explicit in the policy about undoing racism.2. Join leaders in the community, including the faith-based community, tocall for a dialogue on race and the culture of poverty. Form communitystudy circles and book clubs to educate staff and others on differentcultures and race issues.3. Provide for and support ongoing professional development to ensure thatstaff are culturally competent and hold high expectations for all students.4. As a board, meet with students on a regular basis to hear their voices andengage them in helping to create a learning environment free of racism.What School Districts Are DoingSchool boards can adopt aggressive policies about eliminating racism. TheTukwila School Board (www.tukwila.wednet.edu) recognized the increasingcomplexity of assuring equity and excellence and the destructive nature ofracism by individuals and institutions, and sought to undo racism throughthe adoption of a school board policy. The board adopted five principlesthat commit the district to:Undoing racism and eliminating prejudice, bigotry and discriminationin schoolsEliminating disparities in achievement and in the administration ofdisciplineProviding educational experiences that reflect racial, cultural, andlinguistic diversityProviding comprehensive training to staff to respond to diversityEnsuring a supportive school environment in which each student hasan advocateThe Federal Way School District (www.fwsd.wednet.edu) created a taskforce that spent a full summer developing action plans to address its persistentacademic achievement gap between black, Hispanic, American Indianand their white and Asian peers. An Office of Equity and Achievement wascreated and specific goals for closing the gap were developed.Seattle Public Schools (www.seattleschools.org) developed the DistrictAction Plan to Eliminate Disproportionality following recommendationsfrom a district Action Committee on Disproportionality. The committeewas formed in response to data showing African American students beingsuspended or expelled twice as often as white high school students andWASHINGTON STATE SCHOOL DIRECTORS’ ASSOCIATION29
“We need to look inside ourdistrict. What’s important isthat we do not makeassumptions about anychild.”— Diane TurnerFederal Way School Districtthree times as often as white students in middle school; significantly higherdropout rates for students of color; and much higher percentages of studentsof color scoring below the 25th percentile on the ITBS.Throughout the entire school year, conversations on race will occur thatbegan with an August symposium focused on the elimination ofdisproportionality. The district’s action plan also addressed the need toimplement strategies to address and eliminate stereotyping and other biasesin special programs. The bilingual, highly capable and special educationprograms have been or will be reviewed.Time and Opportunity to LearnTime is a resource. A strong correlation exists between time on taskand improved academic performance. On a national level, theCommission on Time and Learning has found that—Ensuring that all students learn to high standards will require flexibilityand innovation in the use of common core learning time, as well asthe rest of the time students spend both during and beyond the schooldayIncreasing the amount and duration of intensive, engaging and challenginglearning activities geared to high standards can increase studentmotivation and achievementThe benefits of extending learning time, including common coreinstructional time, can be maximized by concurrent changes in curriculumand instruction, such as accelerated learning, and engaging,interactive instruction based on challenging contentTo close the achievement gap, those students who are the furthest behindmust have increased opportunity to learn to “catch up” and close the gap.The table below illustrates that if opportunity to learn in reading is heldconstant to meet the three-year 25 percent reduction goal in the number ofstudents not meeting standard, most American Indian, black and Hispanicstudents will not meet standard until well past 2008.Trend Needed to Meet 25% Improvement Goal — Grade 4 Reading2000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012AmericanIndianAsian/PacificIslanderBlack/AfricanAmericanHispanicWhite46.951.8 56.2 60.2 63.8 67.1 70.1 72.9 75.4 77.6 79.7 81.5 83. 266.769.7 72.5 75.0 77.3 79.4 81.3 83.0 84.5 86.0 87.2 88.4 89. 547.752.5 56.8 60.8 64.4 67.6 70.6 73.3 75.7 77.9 80.0 81.8 83. 539.444.9 50.0 54.6 58.7 62.5 65.9 69.0 71.9 74.4 76.8 78.9 80. 871.874.4 76.7 78.9 80.8 82.5 84.1 85.6 86.9 88.1 89.2 90.2 91. 1Source: OSPI, Research & Evaluation30CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: A POLICY ACTION GUIDE
Page 4: Table of ContentsForeword .........
Page 7 and 8: My thanks to the members of the Ach
Page 9 and 10: Assess the achievement gap problem.
Page 12 and 13: Overview of the PolicyAction GuideT
Page 14 and 15: Understanding theAchievement GapWSS
Page 16 and 17: Data also show a clear pattern of a
Page 18 and 19: cient (LEP) students were dispropor
Page 20 and 21: All Students Can Learn:Evidence Tha
Page 22: The two building graphs are from Wa
Page 25 and 26: Allocation and Alignment of Fiscal
Page 27 and 28: What School Districts Are DoingIn t
Page 29 and 30: The No Child Left Behind Act (www.n
Page 31 and 32: What School Districts Are DoingThe
Page 33 and 34: Questions to Guide the Discussion1.
Page 35: economically disadvantaged families
Page 39 and 40: 5. To what degree have new ways to
Page 41 and 42: “Closing the achievementgap requi
Page 43 and 44: “Where there are differentlevels
Page 45 and 46: What School Districts Are DoingKenn
Page 47 and 48: 5. To what degree are parents and c
Page 49 and 50: the classroom, grade level, school
Page 51 and 52: technology and professional develop
Page 53 and 54: tion, learning environments, progra
Page 55 and 56: Statewide 6th Grade ITBS Results: 2
Page 57 and 58: Train teachers to meet the demands
Page 60 and 61: ReferencesBrumbaugh, S. (1997). “
Page 62: Waymack N. & Drury, D. (Summer/Fall
Page 65 and 66: Gary Wilson Principal and Linda Hah
Page 67: Notes

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