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The Excellence Gap What Parents Can and Should Do

The Excellence Gap What Parents Can and Should Do. Dr. Jonathan A. Plucker CAGT Parent Institute October 10, 2011. “Two Subways, Dad.”. What is the Excellence Gap?. There has been a lot of focus on minimum competency achievement gaps

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The Excellence Gap What Parents Can and Should Do

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  1. The Excellence GapWhat Parents Can and Should Do Dr. Jonathan A. Plucker CAGT Parent Institute October 10, 2011

  2. “Two Subways, Dad.”

  3. What is the Excellence Gap? • There has been a lot of focus on minimum competency achievement gaps • Comparatively little attention to gaps in performance among high ability students

  4. Super Awesome Quote! • Education systems that fail to develop the potential of students from every background can make claims to neither quality nor equality.

  5. Why Should We Care? • Life prospects of students from disadvantaged backgrounds • International Competitiveness • Equity of the Educational System • Shouldn’t there be roughly the same percentage of high-performing students from every background? • Is minimum competency really enough?

  6. A Widening Excellence Gap 45%! Not 45%! TIMSS may be a better international assessment on which to base policy, since it samples by grade and not age and is similar in many ways to NAEP. Both in absolute and relative terms, it is clear the U.S. is at a huge disadvantage.

  7. % Advanced in Math Grade 4 GOOD NOT GREAT NCLB BAD EMBARRASSINGLY HORRIBLE APOCALYPTICALLY BAD

  8. % Advanced in Reading Grade 8 NCLB BAD EMBARRASSINGLY HORRIBLE APOCALYPTICALLY BAD

  9. Achievement vs. Excellence Gaps, FARM students 2003-2009 Rising tide?

  10. What About Colorado? • Like the rest of the U.S., Colorado has substantial achievement gaps among advanced students … • … but better than average absolute performance

  11. CO NAEP Percent Advancedin Reading Grade 4 - 2009 Good! Not so good

  12. But what CAN parents do about it?

  13. Don’t Hold Your BreathWaiting for Federal Help

  14. #1 – New Approach to Advocacy • “These kids have needs” approach is well-worn … but doesn’t work that well at this point. • Leads to minimal gains in services that have to be maintained constantly and are often lost at the first sign of an economic downturn. • We need to focus on both equity and excellence as we serve as advocates.

  15. #2 – Problem Can’t Solve Itself • “These kids will take care of themselves.” • Just because we’ve neglected excellence for decades doesn’t mean we haven’t paid a price. • Changes related to globalization and immigration are exposing our system’s flaws, and benign neglect of talent is one of the biggest weaknesses. • Silicon Valley firms aren’t setting up R&D shops in Canada because they like the weather or Canadian schools. • Our student population will soon contain a majority of students from groups who are currently absent from advanced levels of achievers.

  16. #3 – Data, Data, Data • Expose people to the data • That which is not visible is by definition invisible.

  17. #4 – Pick the Right Battles • Determine the Appropriate Mix of Federal, State, Local Policies and Interventions • Federal mandate probably not a good thing • Federal research role probably a very good thing

  18. #5 – Focus on the Right Tools • Push for things that we know work well • *** reflect depth of research support: • Enrichment*** • Identification PD****** • Grouping*************** • Acceleration***************

  19. #6 – Be Vocal • “The Congressman just doesn’t hear from people on this issue.”

  20. http://ceep.indiana.edu/mindthegap

  21. CEEP Contact Information: Jonathan Plucker, Ph.D. Director 1900 East Tenth Street Bloomington, Indiana 47406-7512 812-855-4438 Fax: 812-856-5890 http://ceep.indiana.edu

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