Proposal presented on achievement gap

A panel that has been studying the achievement gap between black and white students in the Gateway School District is recommending that the district focus on culturally responsive teaching, provide diversity training to staff, and emphasize parental and community involvement.

The school board on Tuesday discussed those recommendations and others made by the achievement gap committee, a panel of parents, administrators and board members that has been meeting for about a year.

The committee recommended the district establish a connection between the Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, which the district currently uses, and student-centered teaching that approaches instruction from each student’s cultural strengths.

The panel recommended that Evergreen and Cleveland Steward Elementary Schools serve as pilot schools for the program for the 2017-18 school year. Those schools were chosen because the students there showed the largest achievement gaps. Diversity training would be provided to all staff at the two schools.

The panel also recommended the district create an equity team consisting of a diversity consultant, a culturally responsive pedagogy consultant, a secondary principal, an elementary principal, an assistant superintendent, a secondary teacher, an elementary teacher and a parent.

The estimated cost of the pilot program at the two schools with all the components is $167,976. That figure includes $97,976 for salary and benefits for a social worker, $10,000 for a diversity consultant, $10,000 for a culturally responsive pedagogy consultant, and $50,000 for instructional coaching and tutoring.

No vote was taken Tuesday. Superintendent William Short said that a more concrete plan will be presented after the district receives results of the PSSA state standarized tests.

“This has been and will continue to be a process,” board member Steve O’Donnell said.