Lessons from the Cities, part six: Closing achievement gaps
Although many urban districts are reporting steady gains in student achievement, gaps remain nationwide between the performance of rich and poor, White and minority students. In an effort to narrow the gap, the Council of the Great City Schools launched a Task Force on Achievement Gaps earlier this year. And 14 relatively affluent districts have formed the Minority Student Achievement Network to seek solutions to academic performance gaps between racial and ethnic groups.
Many urban districts are putting more muscle and resources into efforts to help lower-achieving students meet performance standards. In Portland, for instance, the district has provided extra help and more funds for 25 schools where students consistently achieve below goals. In Seattle, extra dollars follow low-income, lower-achieving students to the schools where they enroll. The "weighted students formula" is intended to target resources to students who need them most.
In The Challenge of Detracking, a 1998 ERIC report, authors John H. Lockwood and Ella F. Cleveland point out that "excellence" has been the rallying cry to improve student achievement while "equity" refers to access and participation in a quality education for all students. The two terms should not be mutually exclusive, the authors argue.
Indeed, research shows that raising expectations promotes a culture of excellence within a school that can benefit all students.
To champion high expectations among minority students, the Urban League has launched the Thurgood Marshall Achievers Society as part of the Campaign for African American Achievement. A national honor society of Black students, grades three to 11, the Achievers Society underscores the importance of high expectations and attempts to counter negative peer pressure. Supported by the Congress of National Black Churches and a grant from the Lilly Endowment, the campaign urges African American parents and community members to demand more from their schools and to press harder for changes that will translate into better student performance, according to Education Week.
Exemplary classroom instructional and learning environments, according to researchers at the Laboratory for Student Success, can increase students’ self-esteem and academic achievement and reduce their alienation and boredom. City schools can become "islands of tranquility" in the sometimes unsettled lives of urban students, report Hersholt C. Waxman and Shwu-yong L. Huant.
"When teachers care, believe in, and embrace the ‘city kids,’ they are not only enabling their healthy development and successful learning, but creating inside-out social change; they are building a creative and compassionate citizenry."
—Bonnie Benard, Turning It Around for All Youth
