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Achievement gaps in education have many complex causes, and it will take more than just the schools to close them, an NEA expert said in a WEAC Convention workshop focusing on strategies for eliminating the gaps.
Achievement gaps exist when
groups of students with relatively equal ability do not achieve
in school at the same levels. |
"It's not a solo act," said Sheila Simmons, of the NEA's Human and Civil Rights Department.
Achievement gaps are identified not only by race and ethnicity, she said, but also by income levels, language background, disability status and gender.
"One student can have gaps in three or four areas," she said.
Gaps are caused by a variety of factors, she said, including the effects of poverty, home and community learning opportunities, discrimination, health, housing and mobility.
Schools have control over some factors that contribute to achievement gaps and must address them, she said. They include:
However, schools did not have control over many factors that contribute to student achievement, including:
Simmons offered a list of classroom strategies and school and district strategies for addressing achievement gaps. They include:
She suggested that when teachers meet with parents that they ask about parents' aspirations for their child, about the child's greatest strengths, about what they see as areas of improvement for their child, and what the teacher and parents can do together.
"These questions will totally change your parent-teacher conference and give you the beginning of a relationship with the parents," she said.
Simmons said the NEA has created a variety of resources to help members work with schools, families and communities to close achievement gaps. They are highlighted in a Web site devoted to this issue: www.achievementgaps.org.
Posted October 31, 2005