Growth Mentality: Bridging the Gap in Test Scores

On January 19, 2010, I wrote an article on this blog which showed a bar graph representing one California school's Academic Performance Index (API) using test score results from the 2010 California State test. The bar graph (shown below) shows the test scores for all students, and for each of the major subgroups of students as reported by the State of California. In that article, I showed how African-American students perform below every subgroup in several schools across the State of California.

In that article, I sought your opinion on what we could do as a community to bridge the educational gap. Your responses were many and varied, which to me was an indication that this issue is an important one for you as well.

As an educator and parent, I am very concerned about these numbers. I'm always looking for ways to improve the academic performance of our children, and since that blog post I've had time to reflect on numerous ideas and possible solutions. I rely heavily on my instincts as an educator and base my judgments on interactions with, and observations of, parents. These approaches have helped me identify what I believe are possible solutions to improving our children's performance from the home front.

Having identified these ideas, I will be implementing a new program called "Bridge the Gap Tour" during which I will share my ideas with parents on how they can prepare their children to compete in the global economy and bridge the educational gap. I will be visiting various community groups and churches to share these ideas with the goal of helping our children be prepared, and positioned, to compete with other subgroups, and do better.

In this "Bridge the Gap Tour" I will be using a lot of metaphors and real life stories to share the following ideas on what parents can do at home to prepare their children for academic success:

1. Inculcate a love a learning at a very early age. Teach your child that education and educational success are fundamental to a successful adult life.

2. Provide an environment at home that facilitates and encourages learning. For example, establish homework time, early and consistent bedtime, TV restrictions during school week, limiting noise, and so on.

3. Encourage your child to participate in competitions, at the class, school, District and National levels. For example, Spelling bees, Math bees, Science projects and others.

4. Stay very close to your child's performance in Math and Science. Check their work and check in with them frequently to ensure that they understand every science and math concept learned in class. The future of the world depends on technology, and employers will be looking for those who have skills in these areas.

5. Don't make poverty an excuse for academic failure or poor performance in school.

6. Encourage your child to value themselves, to believe in themselves, to focus on themselves and to IGNORE popularity.

If your church or community group is interested in this program, please contact me.