Intensive intervention: strategy for closing the achievement gap

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Those promoting intensive intervention to close the achievement gap point out that children born into poor homes start with a disadvantage that requires early and decisive action to overcome. Richard Chase, a researcher for the Wilder Foundation, says that 15 to 20 percent of babies in Minnesota live in impoverished homes, with some populations affected more than others: 60 percent of American Indian babies live in poverty, 42 percent of African American babies, 33 percent of Hispanic/Latino, 10 percent of Asian, and 8 percent of white babies.Besides developing and adopting new practices, proponents of intensive intervention call for changing how achievement is thought and talked about. Chase argues that instead of talking about how to “close the achievement gap,” the focus should be on how to prevent it. Kent Pekel, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s College Readiness Consortium, prefers to talk about a “college readiness gap.” Keith Hardy, a St. Paul school board member, calls “achievement gap” a “cop-out term.” According to him, what we really have is an “equity gap of expectations.” We don’t expect certain students to achieve, so they don’t. The term “achievement gap” blames those on the lower end, instead of focusing on fixing the system that those young people are a part of—a system that only helps some achieve.Advocates say that intensive intervention must begin in the earliest stages of every child’s life, first with prenatal care and access to high-quality early childhood education programs. Once in school, all students must have high expectations placed on them, exposure to a rich and rigorous curriculum, more time on task through longer school days and an extended school year, excellent instruction and guidance, access to tutoring, and the motivation to set their sights on college.Caryn Mohr, of the Wilder Foundation, says that Wilder’s research shows the benefits of intentional intervention. Continue Reading

MN VOICES | Sondra Samuels and the Northside Achievement Zone

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Updated, 10/20/2011: Sondra Samuels, NAZ’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of its board, thinks the controversial film, Waiting for Superman, has important messages for education reform. Like many voices in that film, Samuels is an advocate of a “whatever it takes approach” to turning schools around, and shares Waiting for Superman’s stance on teacher unions and public schools.

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NEW NORMAL | Meeting Minnesota’s educational challenges

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(Scroll down for times and locations of community conversations on the achievement gap.) The Challenge: Minnesota leads the nation on many educational levels, but there is a deep divide — an achievement gap — for students of color, students living in poverty, and students not proficient in English. It affects who masters core academic subjects, graduates from high school, and goes on to enroll in and complete post-secondary education programs. How can we address this achievement gap? Is the best solution to: A: Increase engagement between schools and communities, for example through achievement zones? B: Focus on accountability, through testing, funding successful schools and punishing those that don’t succeed; basing teacher retention and pay on student performance measures; and increasing alternative licensure paths, charter schools and voucher programs? C: Focus on intensive intervention, through early childhood education, extending the school day, and offering more afterschool tutoring? Continue Reading

The New Normal: Protecting the environment

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The Daily Planet’s New Normal Project is a series of news stories and community conversations devoted to identifying community priorities as we face serious economic challenges. Every month we’ll tackle a different topic, including neighborhoods, the state budget, education, health care, public services, immigrant communities, the environment, work and inequality. You’re invited to join the conversation, either online (by commenting on articles like this one) or by participating in a community conversation (see the list of this month’s conversations at the end of this story.)The Challenge: As we witness more environmental destruction, and watch our natural resources diminish, what is the best way to protect the environment? Should we:1) Implement stronger regulations?2) Educate for individual actions?3) Rely on market approaches?4) Try another alternative?Scroll down to read background information on this issue, and some of the arguments for each of these proposed solutions. FactsIn the Twin Cities …On average, each person in the Twin Cities metro area generates almost seven pounds of waste each day. Together, that’s enough to fill the Metrodome 11 times every year. Continue Reading