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Health & Fitness

The Achievement Gap: A Conversation with Dr. Eddie Davis


Recently, I went with my family to Saratoga for the annual jazz festival.  This is an opportunity to reunite with other family members and old friends.  One of those friends is Dr. Eddie Davis.  You might remember Dr.  Davis.  He started as a teacher, and then principal at Weaver High School in Hartford.  He then became Superintendent of Schools in Hartford, before moving on to being Superintendent in Manchester, and finally in Danbury, before retiring.  So, what else would two retired educators talk about when they get together, but education. ___________________________________________ Eddie has had quite a bit of experience with communities having to deal with changing demographics and the achievement gap.  He said that the gap is probably one of the most passionate educational issues a community has to face, since it forces a community to re-examine how it educates its children.  Part of the reason for the passion is that there is no simple resolution. That is the case anywhere in the country.  And, based on the experiences of communities similar to Windsor (Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Maplewood, NJ, to name two), if we are really serious about this, no matter what path we take, it will cost a significant amount of money, and showing positive indicators of progress will take time.______________________________________________Eddie was not familiar with the work of Marlon James.  But he did give me the name of another researcher in the gap field:  Dr.  Ronald Ferguson, a professor at Harvard University.  My google search revealed the following: Dr. Ferguson is Senior Lecturer in Education and Public Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kennedy School; he is also an economist and Senior Research Associate at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. He has taught at Harvard since 1983, focusing on education and economic development. For the past decade his focus has been on achievement gaps.  And his main concern is an economic one: an achievement gap in school is resulting in a wage gap in our workforce.  ___________________________________Dr. Ferguson has published a book, aimed primarily at educators: "Toward Excellence with Equity: an emerging vision for closing the achievement gap".  He is also founder of The Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University.  The New York Times did a profile of Dr. Ferguson back in February 2011.  If you are interested in reading it, you can do a Google search, giving the title of the article followed by his name: "Closing the achievement gap without widening a racial one ronald ferguson".  That should get you to the link.   Dr. Ferguson is just one veteran researcher.  There are others.  I hope our BOE can reach consensus soon as to how to proceed.  Many in Windsor are setting their sights on the November elections.  My sights, however, are on September, the start of a school year critical for public education in Windsor.

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