Responsibility for closing achievement gap extends beyond the school site

Leadership, Sept, 2001 by Don Iglesias

Dear Colleague:

Data from the API show a perfect correlation between low scores, low socio-economic status of students and a lower number of credentialed teachers. But there are schools in high-poverty neighborhoods with API scores of 7 and above. What is their secret?

The authors contributing to this issue of Leadership magazine show us that although the secret doesn't come in the form of a silver bullet, there are strategies that will work to close the achievement gap. But in this era of punitive accountability measures, it is important to remember that schools and students alone cannot turn around their schools. While you will find that our authors have differing perspectives on the degree to which outside support is necessary, everyone agrees that district and county leaders must play a significant role in supporting change at the school level.

Author Carolyn Downey writes, "It is time to take the mystery out of the strategies for developing high-performing schools. The responsibility for doing this lies with district leadership." Downey's article offers nine essential steps to higher performance.

Fred Tempes writes that although there may be improvement in API scores over time thanks to new accountability measures, the distribution of schools with low-income students across the API decile rankings is not likely to change without state-level support that places well-trained teachers in low-performing schools, increases instructional time, provides time for professional development and reduces class size in low-performing schools.

Many county offices of education are receiving acclaim for their programs to assist low-performing schools, including Riverside County, which writes about its CAT process in this issue.

The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has created the Baldrige in Education Center in order to boost the academic performance of all students -- especially English language learners and students performing below grade level.

"If you believe that the barriers to school change lie in the need to change the system -- not the teachers or students -- you will be drawn to Baldrige in Education," write authors Diane K. Siri and Ruth Miller.

I hope you will find many new tools for school improvement as you read about Baldrige in Education and other innovations in the pages that follow.

Sincerely,

Don Iglesias
ACSA President