At her session "Achievement in America—Can We Close the Gap?," Katy Haycock, director of the Education Trust in Washington, D.C., described "the three most devastating ways in which [U.S. schools] are systematically shortchanging some of our kids." Haycock cited abundant data to back up her assertions about the causes of the achievement gap.
First, Haycock said, U.S. schools "are teaching different kids different things, with poor and minority kids disproportionately less likely to be taught rigorous, challenging subject matter." Second, U.S. schools are giving some students lower-quality instruction. "In every subject area, poor children are more likely to be taught by underqualified teachers," Haycock said, and "minority youngsters are vastly less likely to be taught by well-educated teachers."
The third reason for the achievement gap "socks you in the face when you spend as much time in classrooms as my staff and I do," Haycock said. "I can only summarize what we've found by saying we've been stunned at how little [schools] expect of poor children"—stunned by how few assignments poor children get during a given week, but also by "the miserably low level" of the assignments they do get.
For example, in high-poverty middle schools, students often get more coloring assignments than mathematics and writing assignments. "I'm not joking, nor am I exaggerating," Haycock said. "Even at the high school level, we're finding a stunning number of coloring assignments. `Read To Kill a Mockingbird,' a teacher will say, `and when you're done, color a poster on it.'"
Fortunately, Haycock said, a growing number of communities around the country are proving that the achievement gap doesn't need to exist. "If we set clear and high standards for all kids, if we make very sure that all kids—not just some—are in a curriculum that lines up with those standards, and if we make sure that teachers master the skills they need, then no matter how poor the kids are, no matter what kinds of neighborhoods they live in, they absolutely can meet those standards."
"In fact," continues Haycock, "rather than being harmed by [high] standards—as some people suggest—poor and minority kids have the most to gain, for the simple reason that they are the biggest victims of our current system of different and lower standards for some children."
Responding to an audience member's comment that some teachers fear they might harm students' self-esteem by giving them more challenging work, Haycock said, "You can't build self-esteem by giving kids what they call `baby work.' They recognize it. Doing well on a coloring assignment does not build self-esteem. It makes me insane," she continued, "when I come across this phenomenon, but I do constantly. Teachers [need] to understand that you do not build self-esteem any other way than by setting the bar higher and helping the kids work to get there. That's how coaches do it; that's how we need to do it."