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San Francisco County, CA November 7, 2006 Election
Smart Voter

ACHIEVEMENT GAP

By Richard W Van Loon

Candidate for Board Member; San Francisco Unified School District

This information is provided by the candidate
The achievement gap seems to be widening. Something should be done to help alleviate this, but not in a way that penalizes high-achievers.
The purpose of the SFUSD is to provide the best education possible to all public school students. However, there is a large and growing achievement gap between white or Asian students and ethnic minority, economically challenged or English Learner students. The ultimate solution to this gap is to do everything we can to help lower-performing students improve. There are many strategies and techniques being employed on an educational level to accomplish this. These are some I support.

  • Move strong principals to lower-performing schools.
  • Offer incentives to veteran teachers.
  • Employ a full-time substitute teacher.
  • Ensure standards-based curricula are being used.
  • Ensure proven teaching methods are being used.
  • Offer professional development to teachers.
  • Ensure there are adequate supplies of books and materials.
  • Provide adult and peer tutoring.
  • Provide education-enhancing extra-curricular activities.
  • Assess students frequently to detect weaknesses early on.
  • Provide individualized attention and instruction.
  • Establish honor rolls and award students every semester.
  • Connect education to job and vocational training.

On another level, there are social issues contributing to the achievement gap that need to be recognized. Among these are the amount of support students receive or don't receive at home and the type of expectations the student's family and peers have for them. Rather than penalizing students who do well, we should seek to understand what qualities contribute to their success and try to multiply those qualities throughout the district.

Whatever we do, however, there will always be differences in children's abilities to learn. That's why I support individual assessment of each student with the goal of helping them develop their unique potential most fully.

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ca/sf Created from information supplied by the candidate: November 6, 2006 10:13
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