《An Open Letter to Congress》.pdfVIP

An Open Letter to Congress* Re: Reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to Better Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching Any fundamental effort to close the achievement gap and reduce dropout rates must directly zero-in on matters that are keeping too many students from connecting effectively with good instruction. Good instruction, of course, is essential! It’s a truism that schools continuously need to improve the quality of teaching. And, so it is quite logical that many facets of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently designated the No Child Left Behind Act) are designed to focus school improvement efforts on enhancing instruction. But, as you know, better instruction alone cannot ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school. Indeed, focusing mainly on improving instruction is a recipe for maintaining a very unsatisfactory status quo for too many students in urban schools and in poor rural areas. So, a critical question is: What else needs to be considered as you move to reauthorize the act? The answer is: Ensuring there is a strong focus on how to help schools improve the ways they address barriers to learning and teaching. As policy analyses make clear, this is a concern that has had so little attention that it can only be described as grossly marginalized in policy and practice. As a result, there continues to be an amazing disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality of leaving no child behind. Policy analyses clarify where policy to date has failed. Research on what schools are currently doing indicates fundamental gaps in school improvement planning and initiatives for linking community resources to schools that often are poorly conceived (references available on request). The situation is as follows: Most school districts offer a range of programs and services oriented to student learning, behavior, and emotional needs and problems. S