The Campaign for Educational Equity, based at Columbia University’s Teachers College, issued five very interesting white papers about student support and the roots of the achievement gap. The papers will be discussed at a forum today, called “Achievable and Affordable: Providing Comprehensive Educational Opportunity to Low-Income Students.”
The authors make the case that comprehensively supporting students living in poverty is the key to preventing the achievement gap from emerging in the first place, a belief central to our work at City Connects. The papers include:
- A Legal Framework, by Michael A. Rebell
- How Much Does it Cost?, by Richard Rothstein, Tamara Wilder, and Whitney Allgood
- How Much Does New York City Now Spend on Children’s Services?, by Clive Belfield and Emma Garcia
- What Are the Social and Economic Returns?, by Clive Belfield, Fiona Hollands, and Henry Levin
- A Proposal for Essential Standards and Resources, by Michael A. Rebell and Jessica Wolff
All of the papers address student support from a unique vantage point, but in the first paper, Michael Rebell, executive director for the Campaign and a professor at Teachers College, sums it all up:
“Providing all underprivileged students with access to the in- and out-of-school resources necessary for school success—what we call ‘comprehensive educational opportunity’—is vital to children’s welfare as well as to our nation’s civic health and future global economic competitiveness.”
For more information:
- Read a summary of all of the papers [pdf]
- Read the New York Times article, “Group Urges More Money to Aid Poor in School“
- Follow Teachers College on Twitter @TeachersCollege
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