A report from Harvard University’s Achievement Gap Initiative tells the stories of 15 public high schools that managed to narrow racial and ethnic academic gaps between students while at the same time raising overall achievement.
The report is distilled from a 2009 conference in which educators from the schools shared their success stories with Harvard researchers. According to the report, the schools succeeded by following five steps: They accepted their responsibility to lead the change process; wrote mission statements focused on a few, clear ideas; made plans for broadly inclusive adult learning for parents and staff members; set standards for judging teacher and student work; and monitored quality while also providing support and incentives. The schools featured are in five states and the District of Columbia.
