Closing Achievement Gaps: Improving Educational Outcomes for Hispanic Children This report focuses on two overlapping areas to address the undereducation of Latino students: English learners’ acquisition of English and Latino middle school students’ preparation for post-secondary education. To explore these areas in depth, the authors treat them as separate focus areas. The authors contend that these focus areas provide a foundation for high academic achievement and gateway to postsecondary education and beyond, respectively. The report proffers policy recommendations that include—but are not limited to—these two areas. It concludes by affirming the crucial nature of teacher professional development as well as learning programs and schools that facilitate success for Latinos and English learners. in Ed. Research and Theories > Bilingual and ESL researchwith achievementgapmiddlereportschool
Science IDEAS Online - Learning & Literacy This article discusses the negative effects of over-emphasis on preparation for reading tests. "... allocating increased instructional time to prepare students for non-content-oriented reading tests effectively withholds opportunities for meaningful content learning for school-dependent children across grades 3-8. In turn, the resulting lack of curricular preparation of such students for high school content courses is likely a major contributor to the magnification of the “black-white” test gap from elementary to the secondary levels." in Literacy > Researchwith gapideasliteracyreadingscience