Closing Achievement Gap Depends on Developing Collective Will

A growing body of research and reform efforts is focusing on the U.S. gap in education quality offered and achievement attained between different races and economic groups. For the 2005 Campaign for Educational Equity symposium on “The Social Costs of Inadequate Education,” Ronald F. Ferguson, of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, presented his analysis of this major national issue. In the accompanying paper, “Toward Skilled Parenting and Transformed Schools inside a National Movement for Excellence with Equity,” Ferguson reviews the research on parental involvement in student learning and on parenting techniques, and the effects that both have on student achievement. He goes on to discuss school-based reform on the district level, ultimately concluding that a concerted effort by involved adults can radically improve the learning and achievement of children. As he puts it,

…skilled parenting and deeply transformative community-level school reforms are two important and feasible goals to pursue inside the broader national movement for excellence with equity that we need to keep building—a movement aimed relentlessly at high standards of achievement among children from all racial, ethnic and social class backgrounds.

Ferguson begins by outlining important elements of student success. These elements are not only academic benchmarks, but also social and emotional markers that ensure a student receives the fullest opportunity to learn and succeed. They include physical and psychological safety, appropriate structure, supportive relationships, and integration of family, school, and community efforts. Ferguson goes on to investigate how parents and school leaders can create optimal combinations of these elements and produce real student achievement.

Transformative School Reform

Ferguson illuminates the essential elements of model district- and school-based reforms that have successfully improved student achievement and closed racial and economic achievement gaps. The primary example he offers is Union City, New Jersey, a historically underperforming district facing serious demographic challenges. Threatened with the possibility of state takeover in 1989, Union City chose to revamp the district leadership and its curriculum, and to create a timetable for serious improvement. As Ferguson lists them, the principles of this reform effort were,

Broad consensus that all students can learn.
Design of successful programs tailored to local conditions.
A long-term process with commitment to annual review and revision.
Continual communication between policymakers and implementers.
Ongoing support for teachers.

The district began by placing in charge two experienced and dedicated district leaders, who worked with educators from within the district to redesign the curriculum so that it was tailored for Union City students and to implement their reforms gradually in more and more grades. By ensuring that teachers were involved with each step of the process and sustaining the effort over numerous years, Union City went from being the second-lowest performing district in the state to become the second-highest performing city in the state.

The pattern that was employed by Union City, though tailored to that district's needs and circumstances, reflects what studies have shown to be consistent elements of effective whole-school or whole-district reform. These reforms combine what an earlier study called “preconditions for reform” and “district strategies for reform.” Primary amongst these were cooperation and common understanding between superintendents, school boards, and other stakeholders; firm accountability systems that hold school personnel responsible for concrete goals and timelines; and “data-driven decision making about instruction,” which allows schools and districts to target resources and instruction. Ferguson demonstrates that it is necessary in both schools and districts to combine plans for reform with effective leadership, collaboration, and accountability. There are many proven educational reforms, but only effective implementation by committed and collaborative leadership will achieve the results that districts like Union City have shown are possible.

Skilled Parenting

Though models for home-based interventions are not immediately apparent, Ferguson delves into the differences in the home environment of families from different racial and economic backgrounds. The primary cause of these differences appears to be resources; not only are wealthier parents more able to provide children with basic necessities and comforts, but they are also on the whole more educated and employed in stable jobs that allow them to devote quality time to their children. They also tend to live in safer neighborhoods with better schools.

However, resource differences do not tell the whole story. In fact, as economic status increases, disparities in race appear to increase. Other differences in parenting styles can account for these gaps, especially those that impact “learning conditions at home.” These conditions include the interest parents take in schoolwork and the availability of help with school assignments, as well as hours spent reading rather than watching TV, and the prevalence of computers rather than televisions. White, black and Hispanic parents are often the most interested and involved in their children's schoolwork, and Asian and white parents encourage greater “home-learning time on task,” including reading instead of watching television.

Research results, Ferguson posits, suggest that consistent parenting habits can indeed create an advantageous home environment for students. Whether these habits can be taught is less clear; studies that attempt to encourage or develop parent involvement in student learning have shown mixed results. But, as Ferguson explains, “…enough interventions have produced gains…even in rigorously conducted experimental trials, that further consideration of parenting interventions as achievement-gap interventions is warranted.” The centrality of parenting to a student's academic achievement is clear, and demands further emphasis.

Nationwide Movement for Excellence with Equity

Ferguson couches these reform efforts inside a broad national movement. He argues that education reform and the elimination of the achievement gap are absolutely essential to our nation's political and economic future, especially as the population continues to expand within groups that are currently low-achieving. A social movement has grown up around our responsibility to achieve “excellence with equity,” and Ferguson discusses two of the areas in which reform is possible. He concludes, “…developing and sustaining the collective will, skill and discipline of adults to effectively prioritize learning by children, including other people's children, is the central challenge we face in a long-term nationwide movement for excellence with equity.“

Prepared by Nelly Ward, November 3, 2005