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Achievement Gap

The document discusses three main topics: the achievement gap, the opportunity gap, and how to teach kids about taboo topics. It notes that achievement gaps occur when student groups perform differently based on factors like gender, race, or socioeconomic status. To close these gaps, it argues we must move from equality, which treats all students the same, to equity, which provides what each student needs. It also discusses how opportunity gaps arise from some students being tracked toward college while others are tracked toward detention. Finally, it provides strategies for teaching kids about taboo topics like racism, by building a common language, valuing student perspectives, and making students comfortable having difficult conversations.

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46 views2 pages

Achievement Gap

The document discusses three main topics: the achievement gap, the opportunity gap, and how to teach kids about taboo topics. It notes that achievement gaps occur when student groups perform differently based on factors like gender, race, or socioeconomic status. To close these gaps, it argues we must move from equality, which treats all students the same, to equity, which provides what each student needs. It also discusses how opportunity gaps arise from some students being tracked toward college while others are tracked toward detention. Finally, it provides strategies for teaching kids about taboo topics like racism, by building a common language, valuing student perspectives, and making students comfortable having difficult conversations.

Uploaded by

api-494134470
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Achievement Gap

- Reality does not match the text book


- Occurs when one group of students achieve higher when grouped by gender, race,
socio-economic
- Equity vs equality
- Equity : according to one's needs
- Equality : giving everyone the same needs
- In order to close gap: design curriculum for each individual student
- High analytical … middle class white kids
- Creative thinking … poverty class
- Giving a student an assignment based on their needs and goals and standards
- Provide tools they need to succeed not to achieve grades
- 10.9 million students live below poverty line (21%)
- They can’t fit into standards that society expects (poverty)
- Must move away from equality and go to equity to achieve success
- Embrace individualized talent based education

The Opportunity Gap

- Some kids get tracked towards college and some towards detention
- School system perpetuates the divide
- Gaps come in opportunity
- Atlanta teachers helping students cheat on standardized test so they can increase
school funding
- 2.3 trillion dollars of economic input
- Public education system should not expand the gap
- Take more pride in public education to solve our problems
- Teacher strikes were successful due to community support
- Innovation is daring to involve common sense
- Scholarships without burden of college debt
- Students are our best resources
- If we save our schools first, we can save our children

Help for kids the educational system ignores

- changing the way we see children as “at risk” to “at promise”


- I had given up on the system because the system gave up on me
- A teacher that cared reached out tapped into my soul (always in your business, always
there for you, culturally relevant, said this is your potential, this is what your community
has taught you, your work ethic will empower you)
- 3 strategies
- 1) get rid of deficit perspectives
- 2) value the stories that young people bring into school (grit, character resilience, be
proud and welcoming
- 3) we have to provide adequate resources, grit alone is not going to cut it
- Teaching young kids to learn from their mistakes instead of taking them out of the
classrooms
- Restorative justice : teaching rather than just punishing … “school to prison pipeline”
- Knowing that her community had her back and William found his purpose
- Refine story to story of victim to hero
- When you teach to the heart, the mind will follow
- Believe in your students so much that they learn to believe in themselves

How to teach kids to talk about taboo topics

- The right thing to do is not always the easy thing to do (scary!!)


- Far too of a teachable moment not to miss
- Racism Educate ourselves to know better
- How many students have assumptions just like Abby?
- What makes a topic taboo? Ex: religion and politics
- Feeling of discomfort when arise in conversation
- Equity : build a common language
- If brushed aside, this type of comment , if embarrassed in front of class
- Giving students resources of how to think not what to think regarding equity
- Social justice survey at the beginning of the year
- We do them a disservice by sweeping under the rug
- Young kids can still understand the conversations of how people are treated differently
(kindergarten and 1st grade)
- You want them to be comfortable having these conversations
- Giving them the time and resources to build social emotional learning, admit they don’t
know something
- Always admit it and own it if you don’t know an answer a question
- Break down taboo subjects like “consent” into everyone having different physical
boundaries that make them comfortable…
- ask 3rd graders what they think they would say to adults if adults said they were too
young to learn about these subjects

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