What role do you believe a counselor should take in closing the achievement gap? Is this an issue strictly for teachers and administrators? What specific strategies could a counselor use to be a part of closing the achievement gap? Use information from the required reading (as well as other research you can find), but also try to be creative and think of a strategy in addition to the ones you have read. Locate, read, and cite at least three journal articles in your response to these assignments. The primary role counselors should take in closing the achievement gap begins first by becoming proactive prevention experts. Low-income students benefit from what schools offer while other students have the luxury of advantages offered in the home. Counselors’ role is to ensure each student graduate with the required skills to succeed in the everyday world. Majority of the skills may not be from tests or assessments but from everyday life skills and social competence. These skills will not only benefit the current students but will assist generations to come by installing parental values in current students. I believe that counselors must introduce programs with interventions that focus around racial-ethnic and socioeconomic students in their existing environment. Achievement gaps in schools across America impinge on racial-ethnic and socioeconomic status groups. For generations school systems focus on improving the achievement gaps for low-income and minority students. Statistics have provided evidenced that the school systems made enormous progress between 1970 and 1988, but came to a halt thereafter. Presently in the 20th century the gap has widened and the need for improvement is challenging for the school administr... ... middle of paper ... ...and the problems that surface. Rapport is an important tool that allows counselors to gain trust, which aid in breaking barriers that hinder the success of the students. The goal is to assist students with reaching their education and person aspirations. Counselors are open-minded and do not pass judgment verbally or physically at anytime while assisting students. Prejudging minimizes responses from distressed or problematic students. Giving advice and assistance should not be based on counselors’ personal opinion. Good counselors will refrain from bias and therefore communicate effective skills to empower students. Counselor should become listeners, observers, and advisers. To make a long story short utilizing good counseling techniques will progress students self confidence and independence. Once a student is empowered they will see growth within his/herself.
In conclusion, the Academic Achievement has been fueled by society's presets, minority students' lack of effort, and the failures of the schooling system in America. There has been some challenging setbacks, but the Gap can be fixed to create a common ground for all prospective members of America's society to excel on equally. By realizing that change can be achieved, there are little to no limits for minority students to create a better mindset towards education. Students, parents, and teachers have to be willing to work together, as well as tackle obstacles upheld by society, and the economic deficiencies that effect schools across America. This will, in turn, take America one step closer to closing the Academic Achievement Gap in America.
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change?
There are a lot of people giving efforts on closing the gap so all children have equal opportunity to be the best the can in the classroom. School reformers have been focusing on evidence showing that high quality teachers and schools have been helping to close the gap. Most of these efforts have come far short of closing the gap completely and they don’t address how to deal with the growing divide between the middle and top class. Even though we have found ways to help with this gap we still have a long way to go before there is equal opportunities for
The Achievement has been a reoccurring issue for many years within the education system. Achievement gaps refers to the academic performance within a set of students. The most vital indicators pertaining to the achievement gap is reviewing standardized tests, course selection, dropout rates, and college completion rates (Morris 227). This issue has been reoccurring because of the various attempts of reforms to close the gap. Some of the reforms to decrease the gap is “No child left behind act 2001”, recovery act, P-12 reform, and many more. It can be argued that these first reforms changed the education system to any extent. However it is evitable to find the most successful reform for the United States increase economically. Which is why this topic is important for North Carolina. The achievement gap is sustainably defined by the differences among not only racial groups but subgroups as well.
Many people believe that urban schools are failing to educate all of the students they serve, but in reality, they are only failing a portion of them. Reports and observations give off the perception that these schools students achieve less, retain less material and the student’s success after the schooling process is over, is low. Some of the students are failing because they are lacking things like school readiness, a basic understanding of the English language or simply because they are not engaged. Schools need to find a way to incorporate each student in their own education and not forget about those who are struggling. Academic success hinges on many different factors that the families, students and schools are all responsible for helping.
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.
Rothman, Robert. "Closing the Achievement Gap: How Schools Are Making It Happen." Journal of the Annenberg Challenge. 5.2 (2002): Print.
This article identifies several special characteristics of children that require adaptations of adult effective counseling skills. This article also offers modifications of basic skills to make them more applicable to the needs of children. Next, addressing children’s special characteristics on counseling is discussed. Building trust in the relationship, maintaining a facilitative counselor, and using questions appropriately is discussed in full detail. This article is targeting counselors, parents, and children.
In this paper, I will discuss the best practices related to closing the achievement gap, academic success, and dropout prevention. Along with this I will discuss the barriers that students face in academic achievement and personal/social development. Closing the academic achievement gap can be both challenging and rewarding. I have many ways that schools and counselors can help in improving their student?s success as well as closing the academic gap amongst students. It is important to know that this task is not something that can be solved overnight. It may
Children from low-income families face a dual problem of fewer educational advantages during their life. In Longs, South Carolina, a Catholic school exist which many parents send their children for the best education possible instead of public school. Schools across the United States have numerous difficulties of youth not attending and graduating high school. Parents either know of or have witnessed illegal activity within a vicinity of public schools. The literature that is provided to teach these children is not efficient and effective. Many low-income families have no choice in the matter because they cannot afford the fees for attendance to private schools. Some families have the opportunity of obtaining a voucher that helps pay for the tuition. Many see this voucher as a way of abandoning public school instead of trying to fix it. Whatever the advantages of education for young people, many are not attending school on a regular basis. Many studies have been done that confirm that there is a vast difference in academic performance between children from high and low-income communities. Education is necessary but education alone does not make it equal between the privilege and poor children as many think it should. Decreasing poverty and inequality first, will raise educational enrollment and performance of students to succeed without regard to their environment situations, race, and gender.
As I read this chapter, I begin to see how important it is to be an effective counselor. It is like anything else that we do, it takes practice and the awareness of what works and what doesn’t work depending
The achievement gap in education is the difference in academic performance between groups of students. The achievement gap is most commonly found in grades, test scores, course selection, and dropout rates both in high school and college. It is most often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between African-Americans, Hispanic students, and their Caucasians counterparts. It also measures the academic difference between students from low-income families and those who are better off. In the past fourteen years, policymakers have begun to focus their attention on how to reduce the achievement gap.
...ory within counseling. (1) It helps counselors find unity and relatedness within the diversity of existence. (2) It compels counselors to examine relationships they would have otherwise ovelerlooked. (3) It gives counselors operational guidelines by which to work and helps them evaluate their development as professionals. (4) It helps counselors focus on relevant information and tells them what to look for. (5) It helps counselors assist clients in the effective modification of their behavior, cognitions, emotional functioning and interpersonal relationships. (6) Lastly, it helps counselors evaluate both old and new approaches to the process of counseling.
In society, education can be seen as a foundation for success. Education prepares people for their careers and allows them to contribute to society efficiently. However, there is an achievement gap in education, especially between Hispanics and Blacks. In other words, there is education inequality between these minorities and white students. This achievement gap is a social problem in the education system since this is affecting many schools in the United States. As a response to this social problem, the No Child Left Behind Act was passed to assist in closing this achievement gap by holding schools more accountable for the students’ progress. Unsuccessful, the No Child Left Behind Act was ineffective as a social response since schools were pushed to produce high test scores in order to show a student’s academic progress which in turn, pressured teachers and students even more to do well on these tests.
In education, when referring to the difference in performance between groups of students, often the phrase “achievement gap” is used rather than the more appropriate term, opportunity gap. The term ‘achievement gap’ further exemplifies the way society chooses to narrate this issue. This opportunity gap shows up in grades, course selection, standardized-test scores, dropout rate, and college-completion rates, amongst other success measures. A lot of the time the main focus is simply on the gap itself, and the conversation behind the cause of this is missing. They don’t want to talk about poverty or segregation, only about test score gaps. Despite politicians trying to address this issue by enacting policies such as the No Child Left Behind