The school district’s two primary goals are to eliminate the achievement gap and to provide enrichment opportunities for students who have met or exceeded course standards. In the fall, the Superintendent held coffee hours in which she showed test score comparisons between the group of Bellevue students that did not qualify for free and reduced-price lunches and the one that did. The data show clearly that significant gaps exist between students in these two groups.
Creating an equitable system is one strategy for helping schools eliminate the achievement gap. By some indicators our system is not equitable. Parents with more resources can choose to live in neighborhoods with higher-performing schools. PTAs in these schools may be able to pay for extra staffing in their schools, and thereby smaller classes, by hosting extraordinarily successful fundraisers. In a survey taken by Bellevue students at school several years ago, 95% said they had computers in their homes. 100% of the students in International School had home computers, compared to 75% of the students in Ardmore Elementary. None of these differences would matter if all students performed well academically; however we know that this is not the case.
In recognition of the fact that children of better-educated, wealthier parents are more likely to be academically successful than those living in poverty, Superintendent Cudeiro asked that a representative parent committee be formed to identify equity challenges and concerns within the district and lay the groundwork for a strategic planning process that will begin next school year. For now, this committee is being called the Equity Leadership Committee. The first task of the committee has been to define “equity.”
