Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative

The NEA Foundation created the Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative to accelerate the achievement rate for under-achieving low income and minority student groups, thereby closing the gap between these students and their higher achieving peers. The Foundation's researched-based strategy shows that developing and strengthening partnerships among local education associations, school districts, and community organizations, is a powerful force for improving student performance and a vehicle for systemic reform.

The NEA Foundation's work in closing achievement gaps highlights the importance of engaging not only the teachers who provide instruction, but the principals who lead buildings, the superintendent who runs the district, the families who send their children to school and the teacher association leaders who negotiate the working contract for public school employees. Together, these groups are shaping learning environments and opportunities for all students to achieve at higher levels.

The NEA Foundation has invested more than $9 million to support union-district collaboration districts with a high number of under achieving low income and minority students. With early results from local evaluative efforts showing significant and positive changes in teaching and learning, the Foundation has expanded the initiative and now supports additional sites in Lee County, FL, Springfield, MA, Omaha, NE, and Columbus, OH.

Springfield Educators Engage Parents Through Home Visits

A year ago, we awarded a five-year grant to the Springfield Education Association and Springfield Public Schools to participate in our Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative Their plan focuses on six schools, selected competitively based on need and readiness to undertake improvement measures. Their key strategies focus on professional development, parent engagement, and collaboration.

Now, they are putting that plan into action. This winter, they have announced the expansion of their home visits program, one of their key strategies. Take a look at their work up close.

Springfield teachers make home visits: wwlp.com

Theory of Change

Our theory of change and corresponding local interventions are based on recent research on effective schools, district redesign, external agent engagement, association capacity, curriculum and instruction, among other related areas. In brief, our work involves:

District and Local Association Capacity and Collaboration designed to generate a shared understanding of challenges, with frequent and ongoing communication, and an agreed-upon set of strategies to address the challenges.
District and School Capacity and Coherence designed to increase capacity at the district or system level to ensure school-level success. Districts need to have coherence (as defined by a singular focus on teaching and learning) and alignment of curriculum, assessments, and resources to achieve systemic reform.
Family and Community Partnerships designed to generate support from businesses, nonprofits, foundations, the district, civic authorities, and parents to achieve powerful results.

Knowledge & Resources

Parent/Teacher Home Visits: Creating a Bridge between Parents and Teachers as Co-Educators in Springfield, MA and Seattle, WA

Parent-teacher home visits—virtually unheard of a decade ago—are rapidly gaining national attention. They are proving to be a way of deepening trust and relationships among teachers, parents and students, and helping teachers better understand the unique academic and other needs of all of their students. This NEA Foundation Issues Brief tells the powerful story of parent-teacher home visits in two of the Foundation’s Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative sites—Seattle, WA and Springfield, MA.

Full Report

See more selected seminal and recent research on the "why" of the achievement gaps as well as strategies to close them.