The Excellence GapWhat Parents Can and Should Do

Dr. Jonathan A. PluckerCAGT Parent Institute

October 10, 2011

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“Two Subways, Dad.”

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What is the Excellence Gap?

• There has been a lot of focus on minimum competency achievement gaps

• Comparatively little attention to gaps in performance among high ability students

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Super Awesome Quote!

• Education systems that fail to develop the potential of students from every background can make claims to neither quality nor equality.

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Why Should We Care?

• Life prospects of students from disadvantaged backgrounds

• International Competitiveness• Equity of the Educational System

– Shouldn’t there be roughly the same percentage of high-performing students from every background?

• Is minimum competency really enough?

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A Widening Excellence Gap

TIMSS may be a better international assessment on which to base policy, since it samples by grade and not age and is similar in many ways to NAEP.

Both in absolute and relative terms, it is clear the U.S. is at a huge disadvantage.

1995 1999 2003 20070

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10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

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Percent Scoring at Advanced Benchmark on TIMSS Grade 8 Math

Singapore

Korea

Taiwan

Japan

England

Russia

U.S.

45%!

Not45%!

% Advanced in Math Grade 4

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1996 2000 2003 2005 2007 20090

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

2.93.2

5.5

6.8

7.6

8.2

0.0 0.0 0.0

0.60.8 0.90.8

1.3 1.5 1.4

WhiteBlackHispanic

NCLB

BAD

GOODNOTGREAT

APOCALYPTICALLYBAD

EMBARRASSINGLYHORRIBLE

% Advanced in Reading Grade 8

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1998 2002 2003 2005 2007 20090

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

3.43.7

4.34.1

3.8 3.8

0.0 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.0 0.0

0.7 0.60.8 0.8 0.7 0.8

WhiteBlackHispanic

NCLB

BAD

APOCALYPTICALLY BAD

EMBARRASSINGLY HORRIBLE

Achievement vs. Excellence Gaps, FARM students 2003-2009

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Math 4

Math 8

Reading 4

Reading 8

-2 -1 0 1 2

90th Percentile All Students

Rising tide?

What About Colorado?

• Like the rest of the U.S., Colorado has substantial achievement gaps among advanced students …

• … but better than average absolute performance

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CO NAEP Percent Advancedin Reading Grade 4 - 2009

FARM White Black Hispanic Male Female0

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4

6

8

10

12

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16

3

14

5

3

8

13

2

10

2 2

6

9 COU.S.

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Good! Not so good

BUT WHAT CAN PARENTS DO ABOUT IT?

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Don’t Hold Your BreathWaiting for Federal Help

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1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 20090

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

3,000

5,000 6,500 6,500

6,500

7,500

11,250 11,177 11,111 11,022

9,596

7,597 7,463

10,000

7,000 6,600

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Federal Appropriation for Javits Gifted and Talented Education

Appropriated Proposed by President

Years

Appr

opria

tion

in th

ousa

nds o

f dol

lars

<-- NCLB enacted

#1 – New Approach to Advocacy

• “These kids have needs” approach is well-worn … but doesn’t work that well at this point.

• Leads to minimal gains in services that have to be maintained constantly and are often lost at the first sign of an economic downturn.

• We need to focus on both equity and excellence as we serve as advocates.

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#2 – Problem Can’t Solve Itself

• “These kids will take care of themselves.”• Just because we’ve neglected excellence for decades doesn’t

mean we haven’t paid a price.• Changes related to globalization and immigration are exposing

our system’s flaws, and benign neglect of talent is one of the biggest weaknesses.– Silicon Valley firms aren’t setting up R&D shops in Canada

because they like the weather or Canadian schools.• Our student population will soon contain a majority of

students from groups who are currently absent from advanced levels of achievers.

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#3 – Data, Data, Data

• Expose people to the data• That which is not visible is by definition

invisible.

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#4 – Pick the Right Battles

• Determine the Appropriate Mix of Federal, State, Local Policies and Interventions– Federal mandate probably not a good thing– Federal research role probably a very good

thing

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#5 – Focus on the Right Tools

• Push for things that we know work well• *** reflect depth of research support:

– Enrichment***– Identification PD******– Grouping***************– Acceleration***************

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#6 – Be Vocal

• “The Congressman just doesn’t hear from people on this issue.”

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http://ceep.indiana.edu/mindthegap

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CEEP Contact Information:

Jonathan Plucker, Ph.D.Director

1900 East Tenth StreetBloomington, Indiana 47406-7512812-855-4438Fax: 812-856-5890

http://ceep.indiana.edu

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