Fix the 9th Grade Problem in PreK

The achievement gap is a deep-seated, long-standing, hard-to-solve issue that isn't going away unless we use a strategic approach to solve it, Vanderbilt University Professor Joseph Murphy told ASCDers in his session entitled "Leadership Lessons for Closing the Achievement Gap." His recent research points to some "big-picture conclusions," including that tackling the problem in high school is often too late.

Contrary to public opinion, schools don't cause the achievement gap, and cannot close it on their own, he said. We must not let society off the hook, he said, noting that raising the average income of lower-income people by $4,000 a year would go far in closing the gap. Yet schools still have the biggest potential to help and when they fail to act, children become more disadvantaged. Among the promising school interventions that work— used best in combination—include preschool programs, smaller class size especially in the early years, use of cooperative strategies, personalized learning, extended time for learning, extracurricular activities targeted particularly for underachieving students, and, finally, providing high-quality teachers who understand the students, respect them, and believe that the students can learn.

The place to fix the 9th grade problem is in preschool, he reiterated. "The hill gets higher as we climb it . . . It is time to see the problem as the moral and ethical issue it is."