Erasing the opportunity gap: NSBA

This one is from someone from the Austin, TX school district and someone from Appleseed
publishing as I go
"The Same Starting Line: Erasing the Opportunity Gap Between Poor and Middle Class Children"
 "What is it that you as board members are offering poor kids versus what's being offered middle class families?"

"nothing...can stop you for doing right by poor kids"
"not about what the kids bring to school but what the schools provide"
 qualified and talented teachers and principals
facilities to support learning
advanced courses
NCLB focuses a lot on outcomes; looking instead at inputs--what resources for kids to learn
Not about a lawsuit; this is a policy issue
when the money arrives, what does it purchase and how does that get distributed?
"the same starting line...harkening back to the civil rights movement"
"It is inequitable and ultimately unfair for middle class kids to receive more than students in high poverty locations"
 school boards allocate personnel and curriculum and other resources each year; includes not only regular resources, but new ones, including resources
decisions are made one at a time or all at once; in either case you don't see the cumulative impact
"squeaky wheel syndrome": school boards are elected, and can be responsive to those who are most heard from politically
chronic inequity in resource distribution is reflected in higher teacher absenteeism rates, lesser teacher credentials, and lesser education levels


Top five things school boards do that contribute to student achievement:
small group discussion here

• library (both resources and things happening in libraries)
• summer offerings (summer slide)
• payment of teachers (funding comes from tax base): teachers coming in from alternative certification programs who are not as well qualified
• track chosen by kids by poverty (this point made by a school board member from Cambridge); kids sorting themselves when given a choice, lower expectations of success (?)
• urban flight and resources fleeing as well

Those are just from mine...notes from larger group here

• pre-K: preparation before school
• facilities: every building what it needs, not necessarily gets the same
• make sure we hit what a school actually needs; not what we assume a school needs
• high expectations across the board
• critical to look at where teachers are placed: creating a policy that it's known that you're not going to stay forever at one building
• moving teachers en masse to a lower performing school?
• technology
• gifted and talented programming: not all stakeholders at the table
• opportunities: that kids have visited a college, for example
• number of counselors, etc
• use of Title I: for extended opportunities, advanced opportunities
• hybrid board (mix of at large and district; district boards can feed into money going to higher resourced schools)
• discipline: response to student behavior (a Little Rock member talks about community connection when it comes to student behavior; whole child, community schools)

person from Boston says he can tell from buildings where the opportunity gap exists
work to flip expectations of students and community: it can happen
Mann: "Education is an equalizer and it prevents people from being poor."
buried within our packets each week are decisions that are one-off decisions that may erase or exacerbate opportunity gaps
"Slow down...think about it...think not only about cost; think also about equity"
"even if you're a district rep, part of your job is looking at the soundness of your decisions" (NOT JUST REPRESENTING YOUR DISTRICT)
asking for ad-hoc reports on things
also ask for regular reports (quarterly reports on discipline)
when the "shiny objects" come up, take a deep dive: BE CRITICAL "under the banner of opportunity"
"doing right is what we have to do here"