A blue-ribbon federal advisory panel outlined an ambitious plan Tuesday to combat achievement gaps, focusing on improved teacher preparation and a stronger education and support services pipeline to help meet the needs of high-poverty students.
The Equity and Excellence Commission concluded its two-year effort with a report with five key recommendations to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Commission Co-chair Mariano-Florentino Cuellar called the report “unprecedented,” since all members agreed to the final plan. In addition to teacher prep and services to high-poverty students, the panel also called for school finance reforms, improved access to high-quality early childhood education and governance changes to improve accountability and excellence.
In For Each and Every Child: A Strategy for Education Equity and Excellence, Cuellar and Co-chair Christopher Edley Jr. noted that U.S. leaders “decry but tolerate disparities in student outcomes that are not only unfair, but socially and economically dangerous.”
They note that test-driven accountability “has not been enough” and that the next steps must include coordinated reforms at the local, state and federal levels. For example, they call for action to change school funding formulas so that public schools receive funds “based on student need, not zip code.”
