Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?

[Anonymous]

Why is extra tutoring and intervention not being made available to groups that are falling behind?

If extra tutoring that is provided by companies like Sylvan Learning Center, C2, Huntington, Kumon, Kaplan, Dr. Li, APlus etc can help the Asian-American and White kids do well academically, should we not allow poor HI and AA students to have access to such tutoring? Maybe all FARMS eligible students also get this opportunity.

Has MCPS thought about providing tutoring and coaching services (for free or at subsidized costs) to the lowest performers or students who want to get accelerated instruction? Perhaps this tutoring can happen during weekends and during summer and other breaks. If they can also provide transportation and snacks, many parents and students can benefit.

Obviously, MCPS by itself is not able to bridge the achievement gap, but, how long will they not do anything for these students?

[Anonymous]

The Saturday School academies are a good option for these kids, and there IS bussing, but it doesn't reach every needy kid.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it would be greatly reduced with after school tutoring in school. That's what needs to happen.

It won't reach all students, obviously. But enough to reduce the gap significantly.

Don't forget that the achievement gap also has to do with unstable family life and stress. Those do not go away with tutoring.

[Anonymous]

There is also 5 weeks of free summer school targeting math and reading at certain elementary schools.

MCPS provides a lot of this kind of extra enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is extra tutoring and intervention not being made available to groups that are falling behind?

If extra tutoring that is provided by companies like Sylvan Learning Center, C2, Huntington, Kumon, Kaplan, Dr. Li, APlus etc can help the Asian-American and White kids do well academically, should we not allow poor HI and AA students to have access to such tutoring? Maybe all FARMS eligible students also get this opportunity.

Has MCPS thought about providing tutoring and coaching services (for free or at subsidized costs) to the lowest performers or students who want to get accelerated instruction? Perhaps this tutoring can happen during weekends and during summer and other breaks. If they can also provide transportation and snacks, many parents and students can benefit.

Obviously, MCPS by itself is not able to bridge the achievement gap, but, how long will they not do anything for these students?

This is why it's not done. It cost $$ -- where is it going to come from?
To answer your question, I think the achievement gap can be lessened with tutoring, but not entirely closed.

Poor children who are academically behind often have challenges at home that higher income students may not have, such as:
unstable homes
poor nutrition
not enough sleep
domestic violence
stress
poor maternal health, leading to various health problems in children

If their home life is good, however, then I would imagine extra tutoring would close the gap.

[Anonymous]

Well, the achievement gap starts very, very early in life:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/07/10/the-word-gap-and-one-citys-plan-to-close-it/

"Two decades ago, researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley revealed a particularly stark difference in the experiences of toddlers with different income levels.
As Hart and Risley described it, low-income infants hear many fewer words per day than their middle- and high-income peers, totaling to a 30-million-word difference by age three. They coined this discrepancy “the word gap.” Hart and Risley also found that students who had heard fewer words as toddlers correlated with worse performance on tests of vocabulary and language development years later.

More recent studies have similarly identified a word gap, albeit not to the tune of 30 million words, and shown that spoken word counts
predicted vocabulary and language understanding months later even when controlling for previous vocabulary levels and maternal education. A separate study showed that, by age two,
toddlers from lower socio-economic backgrounds can be six months behind their wealthier peers in vocabulary. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the scale of the problem, including
a push from former President Barack Obama on the issue, progress toward closing the word gap has been slow."

[Anonymous]

How about identifying these students and making this tutoring mandatory. If this costs a lot of $$, how about making this an unpaid internship for aspiring teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, the achievement gap starts very, very early in life:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/07/10/the-word-gap-and-one-citys-plan-to-close-it/

"Two decades ago, researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley revealed a particularly stark difference in the experiences of toddlers with different income levels.
As Hart and Risley described it, low-income infants hear many fewer words per day than their middle- and high-income peers, totaling to a 30-million-word difference by age three. They coined this discrepancy “the word gap.” Hart and Risley also found that students who had heard fewer words as toddlers correlated with worse performance on tests of vocabulary and language development years later.

More recent studies have similarly identified a word gap, albeit not to the tune of 30 million words, and shown that spoken word counts
predicted vocabulary and language understanding months later even when controlling for previous vocabulary levels and maternal education. A separate study showed that, by age two,
toddlers from lower socio-economic backgrounds can be six months behind their wealthier peers in vocabulary. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the scale of the problem, including
a push from former President Barack Obama on the issue, progress toward closing the word gap has been slow."

We have technology. Why not have recorded stories played to kids to improve vocabulary? Or show Sesame street on PBS? I am sure there is some things that can be done. Not just lip service but actual, well-publicized and mandatory programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about identifying these students and making this tutoring mandatory. If this costs a lot of $$, how about making this an unpaid internship for aspiring teachers?

wtf? Because teachers are rolling in money already...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is extra tutoring and intervention not being made available to groups that are falling behind?

If extra tutoring that is provided by companies like Sylvan Learning Center, C2, Huntington, Kumon, Kaplan, Dr. Li, APlus etc can help the Asian-American and White kids do well academically, should we not allow poor HI and AA students to have access to such tutoring? Maybe all FARMS eligible students also get this opportunity.

Has MCPS thought about providing tutoring and coaching services (for free or at subsidized costs) to the lowest performers or students who want to get accelerated instruction? Perhaps this tutoring can happen during weekends and during summer and other breaks. If they can also provide transportation and snacks, many parents and students can benefit.

Obviously, MCPS by itself is not able to bridge the achievement gap, but, how long will they not do anything for these students?

This is why it's not done. It cost $$ -- where is it going to come from?
To answer your question, I think the achievement gap can be lessened with tutoring, but not entirely closed.

Poor children who are academically behind often have challenges at home that higher income students may not have, such as:
unstable homes
poor nutrition
not enough sleep
domestic violence
stress
poor maternal health, leading to various health problems in children

If their home life is good, however, then I would imagine extra tutoring would close the gap.

I agree. However, this does not mean that they are beyond redemption, correct? If they cannot be helped then why talk about the gap. Then the gap is what it is. Why try and bridge it?

If there is really a need (and not just from a political optics) to bridge the achievement gap, then it does not matter what needs to be done in terms of cost to bridge it. Else, we should stop wasting money and time at it altogether.

[Anonymous]

The achievement gap will never be closed

Societies will always have lower middle and upper classes and more importantly need them to function

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The achievement gap will never be closed

Societies will always have lower middle and upper classes and more importantly need them to function

We should go to some type of German/Asian model where students who are not college material spend high school learning a trade and are able to become productive members of society instead of liabilities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about identifying these students and making this tutoring mandatory. If this costs a lot of $$, how about making this an unpaid internship for aspiring teachers?

wtf? Because teachers are rolling in money already...

Ok. Bad idea. What can be done then to fund this then? Should all students in the county contribute $10 each year towards funding summer and weekend coaching for these children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, the achievement gap starts very, very early in life:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/07/10/the-word-gap-and-one-citys-plan-to-close-it/

"Two decades ago, researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley revealed a particularly stark difference in the experiences of toddlers with different income levels.
As Hart and Risley described it, low-income infants hear many fewer words per day than their middle- and high-income peers, totaling to a 30-million-word difference by age three. They coined this discrepancy “the word gap.” Hart and Risley also found that students who had heard fewer words as toddlers correlated with worse performance on tests of vocabulary and language development years later.

More recent studies have similarly identified a word gap, albeit not to the tune of 30 million words, and shown that spoken word counts
predicted vocabulary and language understanding months later even when controlling for previous vocabulary levels and maternal education. A separate study showed that, by age two,
toddlers from lower socio-economic backgrounds can be six months behind their wealthier peers in vocabulary. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the scale of the problem, including
a push from former President Barack Obama on the issue, progress toward closing the word gap has been slow."

We have technology. Why not have recorded stories played to kids to improve vocabulary? Or show Sesame street on PBS? I am sure there is some things that can be done. Not just lip service but actual, well-publicized and mandatory programs.

Because that's not how very young children learn. They need a live person to talk with them in the context of a relationship and provide them with stimulating activities.

[Anonymous]

I'm in my 40's but I'd love to do this when I retire..