Closing the Achievement Gap Among our students

By Marsha L. Saben

We must close the "achievement gap" between the various ethnic and economic groups of students if our society is going to maintain its strong growth in the generations to come.

We must continue to explore ways to meet EVERY child's educational potential. I sit on the District's Achievement Gap Task Force as well as the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Task Force. Both committees have diverse voices and experience to help develop recommendations to better meet the needs of these populations of students. Already, Cajon Valley has begun to implement a diverse number of strategies at various schools to help close the achievement gap between various ethnic and economic groups of children. The GATE Task Force will provide recommendations to the Board this coming year to better meet the needs of this student population as well.

We need to increase our understanding of what strategies work with each student, no matter their learning ability, so each child has solid reading and math skills as well as the ability to think independently, ask meaningful questions, and apply their knowledge and skills to be productive adults.