The Golden Spike: Schools that are Closing the Achievement Gap

The achievement gap is the most critical problem facing Illinois education. In terms of stratifying students and limiting the development of the state’s future workforce, it is public enemy number one. Consider these facts:

·  Only 40% of third grade students from low-income families meet third grade reading standards compared to nearly 75% of their classmates.

·  Fewer than one in five eighth grade students from low income families meets state mathematics standards compared to more than three in five of their peers.

·  Less than one-third of eleventh grade students from low-income families meet state writing standards compared to almost two-thirds of students from middle and upper income families.

·  A mere 4.5% of elementary schools whose enrollment is comprised of at least 50% of students from low income families have two-thirds of their students meeting state standards compared to 76% of schools serving predominantly middle and upper income students.

·  Approximately 400,000 of the 750,000 of Illinois public children from low-income families are not meeting state learning standards.

The achievement gap, however, is not about students who are failing; it is about the schools and the system that are failing students. In this comprehensive research study, Glenn McGee, former State Superintendent of Education, confronts this problem. He explores the policies, programs and practices of the fifty-nine Golden Spike Schools—high poverty, high performing elementary schools that have closed the achievement gap as the golden spike closed the “gap” between the east and west more than 130 years ago.

Specifically, these schools are noteworthy because they have sustained a three-year record of performance or improvement in enabling at least two-thirds of the students to meet state standards. These schools, which are located throughout the state, face similar challenges of the other 850+ high poverty schools, yet despite the obstacles, they have enabled their students to achieve academic success.

Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, he uncovered some important commonalities among these schools:

·  Strong and active school leadership built on high expectations and aspiration for all students. The principal (or lead teacher) creates a culture of success and belief system that all children can and will learn.

·  Exceptionally hard working teachers who have a profound commitment to the idea that every child can achieve high standards and thus are unwilling to let any child fail. In addition, the teachers are comfortable and skilled in using student assessment data regularly and frequently as a source for improving their own instruction. The accomplishments of the Golden Spike teachers are truly heroic.

·  Extensive integrated early literacy practices and programs including supplemental tutorial support in phonics, fluency and comprehension for struggling readers.

·  More time for students to learn, especially after school or during the summer.

·  Proactive parent engagement and sustained support for parents seeking to improve their own literacy.

Though not a commonality among all golden spike schools, many had developed their own individual accountability system and lived by school improvement plans that emphasized changing instruction to meet students’ needs. Several had abandoned traditional “one shot” or “individualized” staff professional development activities and instead focused on creating a common professional development experience for all teachers. These “community of learners” worked together to acquire new strategies and methods. Also, the Golden Spike schools tended to be a bit smaller and have a lower mobility rate than other high poverty schools.

From these findings, Dr. McGee developed five specific immediate and imperative policy recommendations:

·  Improving the achievement of low-income students must become the state’s top priority for the next Governor, the next General Assembly and all groups concerned with education improvement. The administration needs to focus on the most needy schools and leave the others alone.

·  Additional funding and programming for integrating early childhood education, early literacy and early intervention for struggling readers are essential and will save significant dollars in the long run. Teaching all students to read by the time they leave third grade will significantly reduce enrollment in (and thus the cost of) remedial and special education programs. Moreover, students who have high quality birth through eight education experiences are far less likely to drop out of school, wait longer to have children and maintain their skills throughout schooling.

·  Recast the existing mandated professional development system to school wide team training and create and fund extensive training for all school personnel who work with the disadvantaged.

·  Expand school food service, community health access and parent education at school. Mandate compulsory insurance for children.

·  Fund these recommendations through reallocating current funds that contribute to inequities and with an increase in the state income tax. For example, schools in Kenilworth and Cairo currently receive the same amount of money for “educational improvement” grants and for purchasing textbooks. The policies and practices sustaining this inequity need to be changed.

The paper also urges state policy makers to attend to five additional considerations

·  Create a state accountability system that uses multiple measures of determining school performance and improvement, that rewards schools that have closed the gap and that does not tolerate continued poor performance.

·  Train the State Board of Education staff to assist and support high poverty schools and hold them accountable for doing so.

·  Consider combining the three state education agencies into one and moving all early childhood programs under one agency.

·  Develop a system for training, coaching and supporting parents in need.

·  Continue to conduct research into promising policies, programs and practices.

McGee concludes with an appeal for local school district leaders, education partners, legislators, gubernatorial candidates and others to attack the achievement gap with the same passion, teamwork and tenacity as those who closed the gap between east and west back in the 1860s: “As Stephen Ambrose notes ‘it took brains, muscles and sweat in quantities and scope never before put into a single project—most of all, it could not have been done without teamwork.’”