Closing Achievement Gaps in the State of Ohio

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[edit] Closing Achievement Gaps in the State of Ohio

Of the 10,000 Ohio students not meeting academic standards, a disproportionate number of them are from low income neighborhoods, African American students, Hispanic students, ESL students, and students with disabilities. Failing to meet academic standards means these children leave school unprepared for the work force or further education.

These achievement gaps between these students listed above and those who are meeting standards are not ability gaps. Some schools in Ohio have much higher rates of the students above passing standards—this shows that all students can be taught to the academic standards. It is Ohio's mission to close these gaps with the following recommendations.

[edit] Strategies

  1. Focus on high achievement for all students
  2. Prepare and support educators
  3. Adapt structures to the needs of students

[edit] Task Force Recommendations

  1. . "Develop a public campaign that emphasizes everyone’s role in closing achievement gaps and bringing about high achievement for all students."
  2. . "Modify the state’s school accountability system to drive attention to the performance of all demographic groups of students."
  3. . "Create a system for holding regional service providers accountable for the impact of their work in helping schools improve achievement for all students."
  4. . "Help parents and students learn about Ohio’s academic content standards and keep focused on the achievement of those standards."
  5. . "Build upon the successes of Ohio schools that are closing achievement gaps and generating high achievement for all students."
  6. . "Provide financial incentives to schools that close achievement gaps by getting all populations of students to achieve state standards."
  7. . "Shape the requirements of new and existing discretionary grants to ensure a greater focus on teaching Ohio’s academic standards to all students."
  8. . "Provide incentives for the adoption of programs that increase access to advanced courses and gifted education programs for diverse populations of students."
  9. . "Ensure that teacher and administrator standards articulate the knowledge, disposition and skills necessary to lead all students to achieve high levels of academic success."
  10. . "Establish networks to improve the skills of principals in hard-to-staff schools."
  11. . "Redesign regional professional development services to focus on what teachers need to know and be able to do in order to generate academic success for all students."
  12. . "Deliver high-quality information about best practices to teachers when they need it and in a manner that facilitates implementation."
  13. . "Develop policies that shape the use of professional development time in ways that facilitate regular collaboration among teachers."
  14. . "Fund literacy specialists and/or numeracy specialists for Head Start and elementary schools at a ratio of one for every 10 teachers."
  15. . "Use curriculum models and diagnostic assessments to help teachers learn to teach Ohio’s academic content standards to diverse populations of students."
  16. . "Provide high-quality, universal, voluntary access to preschool to all three- and four-year-old children and full-day kindergarten for all five-year-old children in Ohio."
  17. . "Develop a system of family/community learning centers that work with schools to build the capacity of parents to support the learning of their children."
  18. . "Vary the length of the school year so that it can be lengthened if the student has not mastered gradelevel standards."
  19. . "Provide intensive, immediate intervention programs for students in danger of not passing the Ohio Achievement Tests and the Ohio Graduation Test."
  20. . "Provide incentives for school districts to redesign high schools to create environments that are more likely to motivate students to succeed."
  21. . "Revise testing calendars to push test dates as close to the end of the school year as feasible."
  22. . "Provide a system of diagnostic/interim assessments to give teachers high quality information about the extent to which students are learning state standards."
  23. . "Provide academic emergency districts a caliber and intensity of support that has a high likelihood of helping districts move out of that classification within two years."

[edit] Resources

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