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The primary purpose of a good education is to ensure that every child has a chance to be successful in school and in life. Yet, from the start, the odds are stacked against children from high-poverty environments achieving their fullest potential. By age 3, such children have heard 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers. As a result, by the beginning of kindergarten, children from poor neighborhoods are three times more likely than other children to score in the bottom quartile on assessments of reading, math and general knowledge. The gap only widens throughout these students' schooling. For example, fourth-grade students from low-income homes score three years below their more advantaged peers. The trajectory escalates through the middle and high school years, both academically and socially: These students are less likely to avoid at-risk adolescent behavior, go to college or enter a well-paid profession. To close the achievement gap, these children need a high-quality education, at least comparable and preferably stronger than their more affluent peers receive. Children from poverty will need more and better time and the very best teaching methods we have to offer. And because knowledge builds on knowledge, and failure breeds failure, we need to offer the best as early as possible.
The AFT has a long-standing commitment to research-backed interventions for improving schools. Here are our recommendations for high-poverty schools:
- Access to early childhood programs;
- Improved teaching quality; and
- Intensive assistance for the most struggling schools.
What You Can Do
Accelerating the education of children who enter school behind should be on everyone's agenda, but a local union cannot do it alone. Engage your district superintendent and board members in discussions about successful school improvement strategies. Collaborate with your district to send teams of teachers from low-achieving schools to the Center for School Improvement Leadership Institute to learn the steps of the school improvement process and the skills needed to begin the process. Consider hosting, in partnership with your district, a model programs fair where teachers can visit with representatives of programs that may be helpful in the school improvement process. Learn about professional development opportunities that are available for teachers in low-performing schools. Provide parents and teachers with training in how that can form effective partnerships for the success of children. Seek out community and business partners that will support your school improvement goals, and provide students with the supports they need particularly when they are not in school. Engage in discussion with state legislators about what it will take to improve student achievement in high-poverty, low-achieving schools.
Examples from the Field
