Closing the Achievement Gap: Teaching Content
Ken DeRosa at D-Ed Reckoning has been “perusing the various Background Papers for the Broader, Bolder Initiative looking for some…solid evidence that policies aimed directly at education-related social and economic disadvantages can improve school performance and student achievement.”
Here’s what he found. Or didn’t.
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“Civil rights groups have begun a welcome attack on a House bill that would temporarily exempt the states from the all-important accountability requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act,” editorializes the New York Times this morning. The attack, led by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, was unexpected notes the paper, ”given that the nation’s two big teachers’ unions actually hold seats on the conference’s executive committee.”
“Recent events suggest that the civil rights establishment generally is ready to break with the teachers’ unions and take an independent stand on education reform,” the paper notes, viewing ed reform as a civil rights issue.
A reader of this blog has come up with an intriguing idea for a Core Knowledge-based afterschool center that uses incentives to motivate reluctant learners–and an unusual funding source. She’s put her proposal on a website called ideablob.com, and is in the running for a grant, based on users voting for her plan in an open competition. Think American Idol meets The Apprentice–one idea every month win $10,000 in seed money
Carol Glenn, a 22-year old African American who graduated from Cornell University describes her afterschool center, known as “Bronze, Inc.,” in her business plan:
Bronze is a place for students (particularly older students) to hang out after school. Students are expected to come in and learn something new each day. They will be given assignments that have a point value, and expected to earn a minimum number of points each day. This prevents students from moving on without learning the things they need to. Once the assigned period for study ends and students have met their daily quotas, they will be able to use their points to play video games, watch movies, play indoor miniature golf, use computers, or just grab a hot meal in a cafe (Think Dave & Busters meets the freedom of a college campus). This provides incentives that are more immediate than college or a good job in the future, but not so immediate that they crowd out academic rigor.
Black and Latino students frequently face the possibility of being ostracized for doing well academically. Bronze helps fix this by creating a large cohort of students who value education, preventing these minority high achievers from having to choose between getting good grades and having a social life. Finally, Bronze hopes to make systemic change by seeking out the best academic programs (like Core Knowledge and Direct Instruction), repeatedly proving they work, and then explaining these practices to parents and leaders in the community. Instead of parents simply advocating for “better schools” or “better teachers,” they will have clear objectives and results with which to approach school boards and politicians. Since these students will still be a part of the mainstream system, instead of placed in separate charter schools, the results of parental involvement will likely be seen across districts where Bronze operates.
Vote to support Carol’s idea here.
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