The Achievement Gap

Dr. Terrie Rose on early childhood mental health

Terrie Rose
Founder of Baby’s Space

I have been waiting for this opportunity to link early childhood mental health to issues of the achievement gap. My hope is that by the end of our time together, it will be crystal clear how what happens for a young child in laying that basic foundation has everything to do with first grade math success or high school graduation.

Tom Friedman: failing to close the gap is like swimming without a suit

Credit bubbles are like the tide. They can cover up a lot of rot. In our case, the excess consumer demand and jobs created by our credit and housing bubbles have masked not only our weaknesses in manufacturing and other economic fundamentals, but something worse: how far we have fallen behind in K-12 education and how much it is now costing us. That is the conclusion I drew from a new study by the consulting firm McKinsey, entitled “The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools.”

...The answer, says McKinsey: If America had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 and had raised its performance to the level of such nations as Finland and South Korea, United States G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion higher. If we had closed the racial achievement gap and black and Latino student performance had caught up with that of white students by 1998, G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $310 billion and $525 billion higher. If the gap between low-income students and the rest had been narrowed, G.D.P. in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher.

Read the full article here

Minnesota Meeting: two speakers on the Gap

No Achievement Gap Committee meeting this week.  But at a recent Minnesota Meeting, two education experts discussed what Minnesota can do to close the achievement gap between white students and students of color.

Kati Haycock,  president of Education Trust, an organization based in Washington, D.C. that advocates for young people, especially those who are poor or members of minority groups.  She lists 6 requirements to reduce the gap:

1. More teacher support
2. Measure teachers by their students gain
3. Neediest kids get the strongest teachers
4. Raise sights for all children - rigorous set of high school courses
5. Dollars intended for poor children must follow those students to the school level
6. Demand quality and results

Rudy Crew,   former supt for NYC and Miami schools and author: "Only Connect: The Way to Save Our Schools."
1.  In every school a high degree of human caring
2.  A higher level of expectations
3. A variety of strategies - a repertoire - used to reach students
4.  Schools governed toward an institutional culture that is demanding and that reaches and engages the parents

Listen to these talks at MPR