More than a half century of research has documented a powerful association between social and economic disadvantage and low student achievement. Weakening that association is the fundamental challenge facing America's education policymakers.
Too often we attempt to address educational policy in isolation, ignoring the well-document relationship between school performance and socioeconomic status, a relationship that leads to significant gaps even before students start school. And we can note
Despite impressive academic gains registered by some schools serving disadvantaged students, there is no evidence that school improvement strategies by themselves can substantially, consistently, and sustainably close these gaps.
The quotes are from the home page of a new initiative, entitled as is this diary, A Broader, BOLDER Approach to Education. Please keep reading as I tell you a bit about this initiative.
Let me start by reminding people that under the Bush administration the nation's primary law to assist public schools, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was first enacted under Lydon Baines Johnson to address the educational inequity that flowed from our still disturbinb economic inequity, was renamed No Child Left Behind. The titling was of course borrowed from the Childrens Defense Fund of "Leave No Child Behind," and was intended to remind us that if we do not address issues of economic inequity, we cannot avoid some children starting school behind and staying behind forever, even if they completed their formal schooling. School by itself is, as the second quote above notes, insufficient to address the inequities.
This initiative is supported by a wide range of individuals, who in 2006 came together in a task force organized by Lawrence Mishel, President of the Economic Policy Institute. Quoting from the Who We Are part of their website, the task force was
o consider the broader context of the law in the nation's approach to education and youth development policy. Helen Ladd, a Duke University economist; Pedro Noguera, a noted education policy expert and New York University professor; and Tom Payzant, former Boston schools superintendent and U.S. assistant secretary of education, agreed to serve as co-chairs.
The task force, with writers Ted Fiske and Bella Rosenberg, proceeded to draft a statement to articulate the theme that the nation's education and youth development policy has erred by attempting to rely on school improvement alone to raise the achievement of disadvantaged children. Rather, school improvement, to be fully effective, must be complemented by a broader definition of schooling and by improvements in the social and economic circumstances of disadvantaged youth. Several task force members agreed to prepare background papers providing the research evidence for key items in the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education statement.
When one looks at the list of the original signers, one sees a wide diversity of names. Let me list a few to show how diverse this group is, from education and from other areas of public policy.
Julian Bond
T. Berry Brazelton, MD
Richard Carmona
James P. Comer, MD
Linda Darling-Hammond
Arne Duncan
Peter Edelman
John Goodlad
Christopher Jencks
Arthur Levine
Glenn C. Loury
Ray Marshall
Deborah Meier
Susan B. Neuman
William Raspberry
Diane Ravitch
Janet Reno
Richard Rothstein
William Julius Williams.
You may recognize some of these names, or some of the others I did not list. They include cabinet and subcabinet officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations. They include university based scholars who span the spectrum on politics and economics. And they were able to agree on the statement and principles of this initiative.
There is also a list of new co-signers. Some of us (yes, I have signed the statements) do not list our affiliation, others do. You, too can become a cosigner of this effort.
The complete statement is quite extensive and detailed, too much so to quote in its entirety. I urge you to read it, and to encourage that, let me offer several extracts. The approach is based on two key points that are informed by the body of research that is readily accessible and not in disupte:
This broader, bolder approach breaks with the past by embracing an expanded concept of education in two respects. First, conventional education policy making focuses on learning that occurs in formal school settings during the years from kindergarten through high school. The new approach recognizes the centrality of formal schooling, but it also recognizes the importance of high-quality early childhood and pre-school programs, after-school and summer programs, and programs that develop parents’ capacity to support their children’s education. It seeks to build working relationships between schools and surrounding community institutions.
Second, the broader, bolder approach pays attention not only to basic academic skills and cognitive growth narrowly defined, but to development of the whole person, including physical health, character, social development, and non-academic skills, from birth through the end of formal schooling. It assigns value to the new knowledge and skills that young people need to become effective participants in a global environment, including citizenship, creativity, and the ability to respect and work with persons from different backgrounds.
From these two key principles the statement offers four priorities:
* Continue to pursue school improvement efforts. Research support is strongest for the benefits of small class sizes in the early grades for disadvantaged children, and for attracting and retaining high-quality teachers to work in hard-to-staff schools. Many other school improvement efforts commonly advocated in today’s policy debates have merit and should be pursued, such as improved professional development and school leadership; better coordination between pre-school, elementary, secondary, and higher education; the use of assessments that provide guidance to teachers and principals; and better instruction that makes a high-quality college preparatory curriculum accessible to all students. Educational planners must recognize that some students, such as recent immigrants, arrive at school with distinctive needs that warrant special attention.
* Increase investment in developmentally appropriate and high-quality early childhood, pre-school, and kindergarten education. Every American child should arrive at the starting line of first grade ready and able to learn. Such a goal is consistent with Americans’ strong belief that every person should have the opportunity to make the most of his or her abilities. It is also a prerequisite for weakening the link between socioeconomic background and achievement. . . .
* Increase investment in health services. Research supports the provision of prenatal care for all pregnant women and preventive and routine pediatric, dental, and optometric care for all infants, toddlers, and schoolchildren, in order to minimize the extent to which health problems become obstacles to success in school. Such care can be facilitated by programs such as nurse home-visiting, Early Head Start, and clinics that improve parents’ capacity to monitor and care for their own and their children’s health. Expanding the availability of health insurance for low-income families is a positive step, but insurance should be augmented by ensuring that families have access to medical practitioners in their neighborhoods. . . .
* Pay more attention to the time students spend out of school. A body of research has shown that much of the achievement gap is rooted in what occurs outside of formal schooling. By and large, low-income students learn as rapidly as more-privileged peers during the hours spent in school. Where they lose ground, though, is in their lack of participation in learning activities during after-school hours and summer vacations. Such findings suggest that policy makers should increase investments in areas such as longer school days, after-school and summer programs, and school-to-work programs with demonstrated track records.
This initiative has received a fair amount of publicity, and it has been communicated to the Members and Senators and their staffs, in the hope that it will inform the discussions around reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. I think it is a very important initiative, one that properly recognizes the limits of what we have been doing, certainly for the past 7 years: we cannot address the educational needs of ALL of our children only by becoming more demanding of what we expect in our schools.
I urge you to become familiar with the Broader, BOLDER Approach. Pass it on to your school board members. Make sure your Congressman and Senators are aware of it. Also pass it on to state legislators and Board members, and to anyone running for public office, and ask where they stand on the issues this initiative addresses. And you might consider, as I did, becoming an additional co-signer of the statement.
Let me close by quoting from the conclusion of the statement, a sedtion which is entitled "Facing the Challenge":
It is a violation of the most basic principles of social justice that a country as wealthy as ours denies the opportunities that come with a high-quality education to a substantial proportion of our young people. The increasingly inter-connected world of the 21st century places a premium on the preparation of all of our young people to take their places as effective workers, citizens, and family members.
America has a decision to make. We can continue to pursue education strategies that focus on schools alone and on narrow, test-based accountability—and be content with the modest improvements long associated with this approach. Or we can ratchet up our ambitions and adopt a new and expanded strategy with the capacity to improve student achievement and adult outcomes more effectively and efficiently.
Weakening the link between social and economic disadvantage and low student achievement—leaving no child behind—is an urgent national priority. With our population aging and schools serving a growing number of disproportionately poor immigrant children, the future viability of our Social Security, health, and other social institutions will be affected by how well we educate young people of all backgrounds.
For the sake of enabling all of America’s children to pursue and realize the American dream, for themselves and for our nation, we urge policy makers to embrace this broader, bolder approach to education.
Peace.