Achievement Gap

A report by the Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition on the benefits of a smaller class size in reducing the achievement gap.
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Published by the Connecticut State Department of Education in November 2003. This report provides the rationale and guidance for expanding access to Connecticut’s preschool services to all of Connecticut’s children.

Developed by the Connecticut State Department of Education Division of Evaluation and Research, this guide provides an overview of the No Child Left Behind Act and reports on Connecticut’s progress by district. This guide also provides information for parents on helping their child to be successful in school.

This press release, released by the Connecticut State Department of Education on August 21, 2003, lists, by district, each school that is not making adequate yearly progress in 2001-2002 toward the goal of 100% of students performing at proficient levels in reading and math by 2013-2014, as required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Education Commission of the States has developed a "real-time" database to track states' progress on meeting the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. This site provides policymakers, staff and the public with a resource for tracking the day-to-day status of how state policies match up with NCLB requirements.

This report summarizes findings from CVC’s Early Care and Education research reports. This is the first edition of an occasional series called "Early Childhood Matters." Published in July 2003 by Connecticut Voices for Children.
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This report by Jill Walston, Education Statistics Services Institute and Jerry West, National Center for Education Statistics describes public and private kindergarten in the United States. It includes information about the schools that offer full-day and half-day kindergarten and the children who attend these programs. The composition and structure of public school full-day and half-day kindergarten classes and the instructional practices used by teachers in these classes are described. The report concludes with an analysis of the cognitive gains of public school children who attend full-day and half-day programs. (1,452 KB)

The article, written by Theresa C. Lewallan of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, suggests that as school improvement policies are developed, school systems need to consider providing for students’ basic needs in a coordinated way and improving student health as strategies for raising student achievement. (38,821 bytes)

The first in a series of publications probing how leadership can best promote learning, this report concludes that leadership’s impact tends to be greatest in schools where the learning needs are most acute. How can leaders achieve this impact? By setting directions, charting a clear course that everyone understands, establishing high expectations and using data to track progress and performance; by developing people and providing teachers and others with the necessary support and training to succeed; and by ensuring that the entire range of conditions and incentives in districts and schools fully supports teaching and learning.

This report looks at eight Kentucky elementary schools to determine how they have become exceptions to the pattern of low academic performance that is often connected to low income communities. The study found that high expectations, nurturing relationships, instructional focus and a strong work ethic are among the characteristics shared by the group of high-poverty, high-performing schools included in the study, which was conducted for the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence with funding from the Ford Foundation.

Written by Lynn Olsen and published by Education Week. This article is a year end progress report on the states' efforts to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act. The article outlines the results of a survey of the 50 states and the District of Columbia that was conducted by Education Week. The survey found that though a tremendous amount of data has been gathered on the performance of public schools in the United States, there has been less movement in other areas, such as the number of states now testing in the required grades. The report includes charts outlining state-by-state progress in each of the focus areas.(This site requires free user registration.)

The Education Commission of the States (ECS) under the auspices of the State Education Policy Network, a partnership of the Council of Chief State School Officers, ECS, Education Leaders Council, National Association of State Boards of Education, National Conference of State Legislatures and National Governors Association prepared this report with the support of two grants from the U.S. Department of Education. This report provides an overview of the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, including a summary of the major provisions and requirements of the law, information about timelines and funding levels, an updated look at states’ readiness to implement various provisions of the new law and a set of “self-assessment” questions for policymakers to consider as they make decisions about how to move forward.

This report is based on a survey of kindergarten teachers in Connecticut's priority school districts. The purpose of the survey was to determine how many children in these districts enter kindergarten ready for school. The research was focused on language and literacy, math, social/emotional and fine motor skills. The study found that children with 2 years of preschool are twice as likely to be viewed as ready for kindergarten in math and language and literacy skills as their peers without preschool experience and one and a half times as likely to be seen as ready for kindergarten in social/emotional skills and fine motor skills. Children with English as a Second Language who had two years of preschool experience also fared significantly better in these areas. This report was initiated by the Connecticut Commission on Children at the request of the Connecticut General Assembly's Education Committee and supported by the State Department of Education and the Connecticut Center for School Change.
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Written by Steve Farkas, Jean Johnson and Ann Duffett with Beth Syat and Jackie Vine and published by Public Agenda in November 2003. This survey report finds widespread skepticism among school leaders about the No Child Left Behind Act. The report finds that some 93 percent of superintendents and 88 percent of principals say their district has experienced "an enormous increase in responsibilities and mandates without getting the resources necessary to fulfill them." The report finds that superintendents from large school districts are much more likely to support the law's key components than their colleagues from smaller school systems. (This site requires free user registration.)

This journal includes eight articles written by some of the nation's leading scholars on the racial and ethnic gap among preschool children. The articles address the size of the gap, summarize what is known about its causes, and identify some policy solutions.

This volume of the Princeton-Brookings "The Future of Children" journal includes eight articles written by some of the nation's leading academics on the topics of racial and ethnic differences in school readiness and how early life experiences impact later achievement. The articles address the size of the achievement gap, synthesize what is known about its causes, and identify some policy solutions.

Written by John Franklin and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development in the Fall 2003 Curriculum Update. This article claims that cultural prejudices, poor resources, and frequent misconceptions of their abilities cause many minority students to “tune out” of math classes at an early age. The article focuses on ways to get them to “tune back in,” particularly focusing on changing educator misperceptions of minority students’ mathematics abilities.