3.26 Readings

Important Terms and Questions

Teachers who are

aware of these issues

are often better at

making sure their

classrooms are places

where all students

have a chance to

succeed.

Gardner – “Confronting the Achievement GapMain point of this is that he supposedly is focusing on race.

Funding – not just equalizing the system, but funding to especially help poor children. He rejects racial differences in intelligence as a cause.

Key Terms:

Modest Gains

Parental schooling (history of bad schooling)

Locus of control – p. 157

Solutions?

eliminate (ameliorate effects of) poverty

political will

belief in learning ability of kids

make learning fun

Rothstein-”Class and the Classroom”

The main point here is that social class effects may be more powerful influences on achievement in schooling than school effects, even than race or income effects – on average – this is what the statistics tell us. Moral is – SES has more to do with achievement than race/ethnicity.

Rothstein-”Class and the Classroom”

Key terms/concepts:

Think about - Rothstein vs. Haycock argument about improving social supports vs. improving schooling is not an either/or proposition; as a society, we have to do both.

Reading gap – p. 284 – key idea to embrace or reject is that Americans like to pretend that we are a classless society. How do social class, race, occupation, and/or education affect how parents read to their kids? Reading differences?

Conversation gap – p. 284 – What are the differences he lists?

Role model gap – cultural underachievement – p. 286 – lack of reward for hard work and TWCT, p62 – “acting white”

Health and housing gaps – p. 287 – why wealth rather than income, is a better predictor of school achievement.

Narrowing the gaps – Are school reforms enough? (better teachers, leaders, climates, standards, etc…) Schooling gets extended to preschool, after school, and summer experiences similar to those for middle-class children – not just drilling on basic skills. What does health care have to do with this?

Rothstein

Does this information, if correct, relieve us teachers of responsibility? Does it discourage us from trying?

HaycockKey terms

Ethnic differences – What about SES? Think about this – Why is RACE always a major concern in discussions of educational policy?

Has the gap narrowed? If so, should teachers get rewarded? How?

How do we explain a worsening of the gap for Hispanic males?

Problems vs. Solutions

Problem - Poor students are taught less – Tate says, “I agree…bad teachers.”

Solution – Standards – Tate says, “We have weak standards, little money, in US states.

Solution – Challenging Curriculum - Tate says, “I agree—but does it have to be standardized to be good?”

Solution – Extra help - Tate says, “yes, but more of the same? Enrichment like the rich kids get at home? Training in how to think like rich kids?”

Solution – Better teachers – Tate says, “yes, but are more content and alternative licensure the only answers?

AERAKey terms/concepts:

Pygmalion effect – teacher expectations and “self-fulfilling” prophecies

How is the achievement gap measured?

minority students may be slowly making up the difference

What are the time requirements/commitments by everyone involved (teachers, students, parents, administrators, community) to scale up the reforms? Pretty significant right?

 What could one teacher, one department or grade, one school do to make one difference that would help eliminate the gap?

DEMANDING CURRICULUM and STRONG SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM that values and promotes academic achievement.

“Academic performance

improves when all

students have the

opportunity to learn the

same challenging

curriculum

Marked by high standards and

expectations.”

Possible Final Exam Topics

3/26 The Achievement Gap

achievement gap

factors considered in determining SES (also in 3/19)

human needs (Maslow)

race / ethnicity (also in 3/5)

reasons why schools in the U.S. are different from those in other countries

ways educators can reduce the achievement gap (in schools)

ways society can reduce the achievement gap (outside schools)