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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Finally, accountability must also include a continuous and vigilant effort toachieve equity, reduce disproportionality and guarantee equal access toquality through changes in policies and practices and a continuous reviewof the district’s progress. Boards must set clear goals to close the achievementgap, hold staff responsible for meeting those goals and set a time linefor goal accomplishment. Establishing a structure, such as an office ofequity and achievement, is recommended, as is regularly scheduled, publicreporting of progress.Questions to Guide the Discussion1. Does the district disaggregate data and report it in such a way to helpschools, teachers and the community understand the achievementgap?2. How is the district assessing annual student growth and using assessmentdata to determine which students need to have their academicachievement accelerated?3. Do the schools address the achievement gap in their school improvementplans?4. How is the district assessing progress and using the data to close theachievement gap?5. Is the present system for evaluation or placement of students denyingstudents access to challenging academic coursework?Policy Recommendations1. Develop and adopt policies that require schools to measure the growth ofstudents from their individual starting places but set goals that assurethat each child reaches standard.2. Establish measurable goals for closing the achievement gap for eachschool and for the district as a whole and report progress to the public ona regular basis.3. Use measures to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies implemented byschools to close the achievement gap.4. Establish a comprehensive data management system to provide continuousfeedback for improvement and assist the district in its work to closethe achievement gap. This will require data systems that can disaggregatedata by race, gender, socio-economics and primary language as well asassessments that measure annual rate of progress.What School Districts Are DoingThe Lake Washington (www.lk-wash.wednet.edu) and Vancouver(www.vansd.org) school districts have made significant investments inWASHINGTON STATE SCHOOL DIRECTORS’ ASSOCIATION43
technology and professional development to effectively use real-time dataas part of the teaching and learning process so that teachers can addressthe individual needs of their students. In Vancouver schools, staff developedan assessment system internally to access student data and disaggregateit by several factors. They are working on real-time entry of data andaccess by classroom teachers. Lake Washington invested in a commercialassessment system that is standards-based and allows teachers to correlateclassroom work or tests with state standards and then immediately disaggregatethe data to analyze student performance. Parents and students canaccess data, and student work can be stored.44CLOSING 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 and 36: economically disadvantaged families
Page 37 and 38: “We need to look inside ourdistri
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: the classroom, grade level, school
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

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?