The Equity, Achievement and Diversity for Success Committee is addressing the need to provide ACSA members with a clearinghouse on schools that are successfully closing the achievement gap around the state.
Although the California Department of Education has a similar project, the EADS project differs on three levels.
ACSA’s criteria does not necessitate winning a state or federal award for inclusion; the information will build the ACSA network by providing information to the schools with the specific focus on closing the achievement gap; and finally, this is a great way to connect members who are successful and enable them to share their success with their colleagues.
If you have successful practices to share, please contact Margarita Magliocco, staff executive to the Equity, Achievement and Diversity for Success Committee, via e-mail at mmagliocco@acsa.org, or call (800) 608-ACSA.
The EADS Committee authored the Equity and Achievement Position Paper and will use the document as a rubric for success.
This position paper is designed to guide educators, lawmakers and community leaders in closing the achievement gap in all California schools. It highlights nine specific areas of the state education system:
1. Standards-based curriculum and instruction. Content standards and standards-aligned tests must be embraced as the centerpiece of equity-driven curriculum and instruction.
2. Assessment. Student progress in meeting standards should be determined through multiple measures that are valid, reliable and fair.
3. Relationships. Diversity, including diversity of ideas, is an asset to our efforts to provide equitable and quality education for all students.
4. Professional learning. Profes-sional development must be a budget priority at state, district and school levels.
5. Recruitment, hiring and coaching. Schools and districts must recruit and hire staff that reflect the community as well as develop capacity of staff to meet the needs of students in the community.
6. Community engagement. Districts and schools should reach out to their surrounding communities to learn about their customers and enhance the community relationship.
7. Support structures. The priorities at each level of the educational support system – legislative policy makers, California Department of Education, regional support centers, county offices of education, district offices, school sites, and agency and community partners – must focus on the learning and achievement of students most in need.
8. Resources. State and district resources should be equitably allocated to schools whose students need the most and not equally apportioned to all schools, leaving schools and students who need the most with fewer or diminished resources.
9. Leadership. While the present school system has successfully served millions of students, it has also failed millions, especially poor children and children of color. Educational leaders must be equipped to create school environments that work for all students.
For each of the nine areas, the position paper also offers conditions that would manifest if all stakeholders in the system held the same beliefs.
Copies of the complete Equity and Achievement Position Paper can be found on the ACSA Web site at www.acsa.org.