Closing the gap: the Education Trust's recipe for meeting new federal standards on student achievement

School Administrator, August, 2002 by Craig Jerald, Kati Haycock

* the 57 schools in Texas with more than 75 percent African American students who also scored in the top quarter on the state's 6th-grade mathematics test for two years in a row.

For states with more than one year of test data, the website also allows users to search for schools that have made large improvements in student achievement over a particular time span.

Useful Data

Our own research shows there are thousands of schools nationwide that have poverty rates and/or minority enrollments in the top third of their respective states and also had top-third scores on one or more state assessments.

No one set of criteria can fit all purposes, however, so the site also allows users to search for schools that meet additional overlapping criteria for high performance. For example, there are nearly 1,300 schools where the majority of students are poor or African American and Latino and that have achieved scores in the top third in more than one subject area over multiple years.

The website is a work in progress. We plan to add new disaggregated test scores as they become more widely published by states over the next year. Eventually, such data will allow users to search for schools that have reduced within-school achievement gaps.

Craig Jerald

AASA's Resources for ESFA

ASA's Issues Department has developed a Best Practices Resource -- a website to help school leaders implement the No Child Left Behind Act, the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Tern Duggan Schwartzbeck of the AASA Issues Department has searched the Internet to compile the most useful tools, resources and best practices as well as articles and organizations to help school district leaders put in place the federal law's provisions.

The website (www.aasa.org/esea) has the following sections:

* Overall Resources. Overviews of the legislation, links to Department of Education websites about ESEA and links to Education Week articles about the legislation. This section carries information about using scientifically based research.

* Adequate Yearly Progress. Includes resources for working with data and offers examples of best practices in districts improving accountability, district improvement plans, district report cards, mandated choice in failing schools and the provision of supplemental services.

* Educator Quality. Includes information on helping all teachers become highly qualified, new standards of quality for paraprofessionals and resources and best practices for district professional development plans.

* Reading. Includes resources and articles on district reading strategies for Reading First and Early Reading First and information about the federal Bilingual Education Act.

* Rural Schools. Includes information on the Rural Education Achievement Program, including steps for rural districts to receive additional funding and flexibility.

* Other. Includes resources on 21st Century Community Learning Centers, comprehensive school reform and the flexibility provisions in No Child Left Behind Act.