User:Varunko/sandbox

Topic: Environmental Policy
notes:

- The article goes over much of the broad ideas of environmental policy

-addresses topics like climate change without really becoming biased but does it by not going into much detail. This allows for the article to remain neutral

-most of the information presented was relevant

- links work, but there are some resources are somewhat outdated (from the 90s)

- In the talk section, commentators said that the article was not in depth enough and that there was need to fix sections around negative externalities

Article Edit
Topic: Achievement gap in the United States

(Bolded words are added words)

Attempts at narrowing the racial achievement gap
Explanations for the achievement gap and concerns over its effects and even the existence of such a gap are widely contested.  These explanations are also the source of much controversy, especially since efforts to "close the gap" have become some of the more politically prominent education reform issues. The issues that the achievement gap perpetuate also hold politically charged issues. For example, the cause of the Latino education crisis is not attributable to any single factor. It is likely the result of multiple variables-- all of which can have an effect on one another-- ranging from social, economic, and educational conditions to inadequate social services and families with exceptionally low human and social capital. '''The effects of the achievement gap in school can be seen later in life for students. For example since schools often lack the resources to meet many students' most basic educational needs and since there are few entry level jobs that provide a living wage and benefits available to those without higher education or special skills in the economy, many are left at a disadvantage.''' The following attempts have all been made in order to counteract the effects of the achievement gap at schools. They range from nationwide, government-led initiatives to smaller school-based initiatives.

Standards-based reform and No Child Left Behind
The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB) focuses on standardized test scores and school accountability to ensure that all students have the same educational opportunities. As written, the legislation incentivizes that schools show continual improvement toward this goal (otherwise known as "Adequate Yearly Progress," or AYP) otherwise schools face punishments, such as sanctions'''. This system has been criticized by some for being unfair toward schools that have the highest population of minority and poor students, as it is harder for these schools to meet the standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act, due to insufficient funding from either local, district, or state actors. This in turn leads to a cycle of underperformance and sanctions within these areas which furthers the problems that the Act meant to fix.'''

In 2010, the Obama Administration instituted the Race to the Top (RTTT) program which provides financial incentives to states to produce measurable student gains. RTTT’s primary goals are to improve student achievement, close achievement gaps, and improve high school graduation rates. The goals of both programs has been to close the achievement gap, but the RTTT has been more focused on closing the gap between higher and lower performing schools rather than focusing on a national approach. The major difference between the two educational reform programs is that RTTT is a competitive grant program that provides incentives for schools to change, while the NCLB Act mandated various changes in state and local education systems. The RTTT's approach is more adaptable and focused as it allows for individual actions between schools, and is meant to encourage reform within schools without resorting to punishments, whereas the No Child Left Behind Act relies on punishments as its main form of promoting reform in schools.

'''Another attempt to standardize the education of students is the Common Core State Standards Initiative, also known as Common Core. The Common Core, created in 2009 and 2010, sets benchmarks for the skills that students should have by certain grade levels in subjects such as Math and Language Arts and the system itself is to meant to be a national baseline for for how students are achieving. This baseline is meant to help establish what students need in order to achieve in higher education.''' While the standards are meant to be nationwide, they have only been adopted by 35 states as it is not mandatory for states to subscribe to the Common Core unless they desire federal grants. The Common Core Initiative has been criticized as it has not yielded any noticeable improvement in what has almost 10 years since it has been implemented, due to a multiple reasons, from incorrect implementation to content as the idea of a centralized system for education has been criticized for not taking the dynamic differences in learning-style into consideration.

'''The newest addition to the growing list of government-led initiatives has been the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA. The ESSA, enacted in December of 2015, is Congress's replacement for the NCLB. The ESSA takes notes from both the RTTT and the NCLB, by keeping the standardized testing of the NCLB while allowing for the flexibility of the RTTT. The ESSA gives states more say in how schools are held accountable, and how states can act to fix issues at their schools, and as such, states can set long-term goals instead of having to worry about year-to-year performance issues as with the NCLB. States must still identify low performing schools and provide additional support, but now states can focus on long-term solutions. The new bill also focuses more on academic growth, which is subjective and does not always line up with a student's grade level, whereas the NCLB only cared whether students were performing to grade level. By combining the standardized test requirements of the NCLB while allowing for more state control like in the RTTT, the ESSA hopes to achieve long-lasting reform.'''

School-based reform
Initiatives to close the achievement gap have been implemented at the school, district and state level in order to better address the issue. These include investments in pre-kindergarten programs, class size reduction, small schools, curricular reform, alignment of pre-kindergarten through college standards and expectations, and improved teacher education programs. Many schools have started implementing after-school activities such as tutoring sessions, remedial programs, and rapid assessment programs. These programs are meant to help minority students learn at a more accelerated rate in order to help them catch up to their peers. Other schools have started de-tracking their students in order to provide the same quality education for all students, regardless of race. De-tracking not only allows for all students to be taught in the same way, but it also opens up new opportunities for students who would be put on a certain career path by their education.

Teacher-focused reform
Another focus of reform directed toward the achievement gap has been on teacher development, as research shows '''that since teachers are responsible for almost every aspect of a child’s education within the bounds of a classroom. Therefore, in order to best address the achievement gap, reform efforts based on improved teaching are one of the main strategies used to address the gap'''. This reform effort has been both top-down, in the form of higher state standards for teacher education and preparation, as well as bottom-up, through programs like Teach for America and AmeriCorps that aim to address educational inequity by recruiting and training teachers specifically to work in high-needs schools.

Investment in early childhood
One strategy being used to address the achievement gap has been focusing on early childhood development. Economic research shows that investment at this stage is both more effective and cost effective than interventions later in a child’s life. By helping develop critical skills early on, these programs cut out the need for such intervention later on. Head Start and various state-funded pre-kindergarten programs target students from low-income families in an attempt to level the playing field for these children before school begins. In addition to increased access, there has also an increased national focus on raising quality standards for Head Start and state-funded pre-K programs, and in improving training and professional development for early care providers.

There is a lot of strong evidence pointing to early childhood development playing a huge role in closing the achievement gap: various studies, including the Carolina Abecedarian study, Child-Parent Center study, and HighScope Perry Preschool study, have shown that pre-K programs can have a positive and long-lasting impact on academic achievement of low-income and minority students. '''Furthermore, the role of early childhood education and development has been tied to success even out of the classroom. Pre-K programs help students develop social, emotional, and critical thinking skills at a young age, and while none of this prevents the effects of poverty, it does help in dampening the effects while also better preparing student for their future.'''