Education Assessment

Recommendations

Part 6 of the education assessment

I. Context

For the process of learning to be successful, several conditions must be satisfied. Our educational systems must be equitable and accessible. Students must be challenged to attain their highest potential. The best quality educators must be sought and retained. Our educational institutions must be well integrated and fully accountable. Our community must support its students and its educational institutions by implementing effective strategies and providing adequate resources. The following key goals and potential strategies recommended by the Community Action Network focus on ways the community can work collaboratively to meet the challenges identified in this report and satisfy these conditions.

Report Recommendations:

1. Close the gaps in achievement and participation across racial, ethnic, cultural and economic groups
   • Increase the participation of minority students in educational settings (for example)
     • Utilize multiple community sites (businesses, churches, schools, community centers, etc.) to actively increase awareness of the worth and utility of higher-level curriculum among families of minority students
     • Promote opportunities for minority students to participate in early college start, honors and AP courses
     • Provide work-based learning opportunities for poor and minority students to promote career exploration
     • Use media creatively to publicize educational and career opportunities, e.g., communicate opportunities via Spanish radio
   • Increase the educational achievement of minority students (for example)
     • Engage parents as partners in addressing and understanding the achievement gap
     • Provide incentives for recruiting and retaining quality teachers and administrators in under-performing schools
     • Support programs where outcomes show that they are successful in improving student success
   • Recognize and Embrace diversity as a valuable asset in our community (for example)
     • Create interactive educational and community opportunities for understanding and changing stereotypes
     • Encourage corporate and community groups which have successful models for valuing diversity to share them with educational institutions and the community at large
2. Ensure that all students meet higher expectations
   • Increase the alignment within and across educational systems to better serve all students (for example)
     • Create forums for curriculum alignment within and across educational institutions
     • Make the Recommended High School Plan standard for all students
   • Increase opportunities and support for individual student success (for example)
     • Mobilize additional resources and community volunteers for tutoring, mentoring, after-school and weekend education/enrichment opportunities
     • Address support service needs of individual students and families through increased community support of programs that have proven outcomes
     • Provide opportunities for students to engage in work-based learning activities (career pathways, internships, job shadowing, industry tours, etc.)
3. Eliminate barriers to participation in post-secondary education
   • Reduce the financial barriers to participation in post-secondary education and achievement of educational goals (for example)
     • Provide scholarship and grant opportunities for local students
     • Utilize multiple community settings (businesses, churches, schools, community centers, etc.) to provide families with information on how to finance higher education
   • Increase the access to Higher Education for all students through increased institutional capacity and heightened awareness (for example)
     • Invest resources to expand the capacity of local post-secondary institutions of all types to serve a larger and more diverse population
     • Utilize multiple community settings to provide families with information on how to access and succeed in post-secondary education
     • Expand opportunities for alternative learning mechanisms, e.g., distance learning, night and weekend programs
4. Recruit and retain quality educators
   • Utilize "grow your own" approaches to increase the number of people entering the teaching profession (for example)
     • Employ early outreach to attract high school students into the teaching profession
     • Provide college scholarships and forgivable loans for high-achieving high school students in exchange for teaching service
     • Train paraprofessionals who live and work in the neighborhood of hard-to-staff schools to become teachers
   • Increase compensation and other incentives to attract new teachers and increase retention of existing teachers (for example)
     • Provide resources to enhance bonuses and other financial benefits for teachers
     • Provide teacher externships in business and industry
     • Support activities that allow for mid-career professionals to enter the teaching profession
   • Increase preparation and support for new teachers (for example)
     • Provide content specific mentors for new teachers
     • Create a forum for teacher training institutions and school districts to interact about how to produce the best quality new teachers
5. Enhance support for students to ensure successful transitions (grade-to-grade, school-to-school, school-to-work, etc.)
   • Increase coordination and communication among school districts, higher education institutions and employers to enhance learning (for example)
     • Encourage employers, higher education institutions and school districts to communicate in forums such as those provided through the industry cluster concept
     • Partner community, education and employer groups to provide more individual information to students and parents about potential career and higher education options, especially target middle school students and parents
     • Support programs that have proven outcomes of assisting students in times of transition
     • Encourage community members to become informed and vote in school board elections
   • Improve data and information sharing among educational institutions and with the community (for example)
     • Create a system that tracks students after high school and provides feedback about post high school success to the educational institutions and the community.

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