Closing the Achievement Gaps Resources
The NEA Foundation created the Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative to accelerate the achievement rate for low income and minority student groups, thereby closing the gap between these students and their higher achieving, more affluent peers, while raising achievement for all groups.
Our work is research-based and the following bibliography, resources, and partner organizations have informed and framed this important work.
Bibliography
Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative Theory of Change
This bibliography, a work in progress, begins with a section on the nature of the achievement gaps (which includes citations on the extent of the gaps and reasons for them), and continues with citations relevant especially to interventions implemented by sites participating in the NEA Foundation Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative.
Closing the Achievement Gaps Resources
New NEA Foundation Report: “Human Capital: Unions and School Districts Collaborating To Close Achievement Gaps”
We are confronted today more urgently than ever before with the need for creating a sustainable system for developing the highest quality teaching in our public schools. This report examines the collaborative development of systems to improve the knowledge and skills of public school educators and leaders. The report studies the work in the Foundation’s Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative sites as well as other local initiatives that have been developed with, and not just for, educators.
Better: Evidence-based Education
Better: Evidence-based Education is a new magazine dedicated to a revolutionary idea in education: use what works. It is intended to help educational leaders and policy makers get the best in research-based practice, to help them make better decisions for students at all levels. The articles in Better are written to explain, in plain English, the state of evidence behind informed practice in education.
Website: http://betterevidence.org/
Knowledge Partners
The NEA Foundation Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative works closely with national knowledge and technical assistance partners to ensure a state-of-the-art initiative.
The Parent Teacher Home Visit Project
This project began in 1998 as a partnership among a faith based community organizing group, a local teachers union, and a school district in an effort to address the cycle of blame between parents and site personnel at several Sacramento schools. It has blossomed into a nationally recognized parent engagement model especially where there is a pervasive history of low student achievement, high levels of poverty, and where high percentages of children enter school as English learners. Parent Teacher home visits are currently being implemented with support from the NEA Foundation in Seattle Public Schools as a participant in the NEA Foundation's Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative.
National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education
An important resource used by the NEA Foundation to inform its Theory of Change for closing the achievement gaps, NCPIE's mission is to advocate for the involvement of parents and families in their children's education, and to foster relationships between home, school, and community to enhance the education of all of the nation's young people. The group monitors legislation, initiates projects, and shares information and ideas about relevant research, programs, and policies.
Center for Teaching Quality
http://www.teachingquality.org/
The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) seeks to improve student learning and advance the teaching profession by cultivating teacher leadership, conducting timely research, and crafting smart policy — all in an effort to ensure that every student in America has a qualified, well-supported and effective teacher. CTQ has been a critical partner in helping the NEA Foundation to shape a coherent vision for teaching capacity building in all of its funded Closing the Achievement Gaps sites.
National Commission on Teaching and America's Future
For more than a decade, NCTAF has been a leading voice on what matters most for student learning: quality teaching in schools organized for success. NCTAF calls on policymakers and education leaders to provide every child in America with 21st century teaching. With support from the NEA Foundation, NCTAF prepared the 2007 report "Reducing the Achievement Gap through District/Union Collaboration: The Tale of Two Districts." This report features key lessons generated by the NEA Foundation Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative in Hamilton County, TN.