Allocation+of+Resources

Allocation of Resources
Maxims:

8 - 100% of the achievement gap in reading and 67% of the gap in math originates in the home before a student's first day of kindergarten.

9 - Creating widespread awareness of appropriate kindergarten and age-level targets among parents and child-care providers significantly increases the number of students entering kindergarten with grade-level skills.

11 - These targets can be achieved when parents read with their child 20 minutes a day from birth and spend five minutes a day playing simple age-appropriate activities.

12 - Our data show -that providing targets, tools, and training to parents and child-care providers can significantly decrease the number of students coming to kindergarten with skills below grade level.

13 - Most school districts spend twice as much per child per year on students who need remediation. Catch-up growth in public schools is very expensive and historically unsuccessful. Fostering annual academic growth in emergent reading and math skills is five to ten times less expensive from birth to age five than in grades K-5.

20 - Annual growth perpetuates the four-to-six-year range in incoming kindergarten achievement. Students who are in the first quartile of math are the exception to this maxim. First-quartile students fall a little further behind every year.

21 - Students who are behind need to make catch-up growth. Catch-up growth is annual growth plus some additional part of a year's growth.

23 - When students leave kindergarten three years behind in reading, they must make two full years' growth plus annual growth in the first, second, and third grades to be at grade level by the end of third grade.

26 - Catch-up growth is easiest to make early. It is easiest from birth to kindergarten. It is more difficult from kindergarten to third grade. It is more challenging still in middle school. It is hardest of all in high school.

44 - School structure affects instruction. Elementary teachers have a primary responsibility to 25 students and 50 parents. Middle and high school teachers share responsibility for 150 students and if they switch at the semester, for 300 students and 600 parents.

50 - Students who move frequently and are English language ' learners are two groups that have the greatest difficulty meeting high standards. Highly mobile students spend substantially less time on task. English language learners must subtract the time it takes to learn English from time on task.

59 - When students start their educational marathon in kindergarten with a "six mile" difference between initial starting points and when each student runs a mile during the year, they will still be six miles apart at the end of the year. Kindergarten children who began the year with the entry skills of three-year-olds will have the skills of four-year-olds at the year's end. Kindergarten children with the entry skills of five-year-olds will have skills of six-year-olds. They all make a year of growth but the six-year achievement gap will remain.

60 - Catch-up growth is rarely achieved by pressuring students who are behind to "run faster" in the same amount of time. Catch-up growth is typically achieved by allowing them to "run longer" and "run smarter/' i.e., dramatically increasing direct instructional time and using it wisely.

61 - The primary driver of catch-up growth is increased instructional time. This is true in math as well as reading.

62 - Increases in instructional time should be proportional to the level of deficiency. Students who are three years behind need more minutes of direct instruction than students who -are one year behind.

67 - The research shows that silent sustained reading improves the abilities of students who already read well but results in very little improvement for those who don't read at grade level.

69 - By focusing on scheduling, building principals can double or triple the amount of direct instructional time for students who need targeted instruction in a single semester.

71 - Elementary and secondary principals are primarily responsible for scheduling proportional increases in instruction time for students who are behind.

72 - Elementary schools are typically more flexible than middle schools. Elementary schools generally develop iive or six tailored programs to increase catch-up minutes for students. Elementary schools are smaller, nimbler, and usually function better as teams.

75 - The implicit assumption of -uniform master schedules is wrong. Students who are behind do not learn at faster rates than students who are ahead. They require additional time and direct instruction tailored to their deficient sub-skills.

76 - Low-performing schools are more resistant to increasing instructional time. They require more encouragement from the board and superintendent to increase instructional time at low-performing schools than at high-performing schools. This resistance could stem from leadership, entrenched refusal to change, disregard of the data, or apathy.

77 - Monitoring whether principals actually schedule lagging (low quartile) students for additional classes or time is the first step in assuring proportional increases in instruction.

78 - Superintendents and boards can use principal scheduling reports to create accountability for scheduling proportional catch-up time and classes.

79 - Merely allocating additional time does not mean that it will be spent on the deficient sub-skill.

84 - Deciding to teach 90% to 95% of students to read at grade level by third grade is "like a single, clear, perfectly struck note hanging in the air in the hushed silence." It is the perfect "hedgehog" strategy for U.S. elementary schools and absolutely essential in-every great district.