Zap the Gap
Yes, zap the gap. We need to eliminate the gap between our performance on the state assessments as well as in our learning. We need to erase the gap between the between the races in reading and math on our assessments. We also need to increase the ACT scores in our district.
Our school district is working towards helping us improve. We are doing well, but we need to do better. Benchmarks have been the start to this improvement; to this change. Benchmarks did not go well at first, the school district failed miserably but they have revised the work and made them better. This was done to focus us as well as our teachers in specific areas such as reading and math. We need to better our performance, not only for our teachers, parents, and district but also for ourselves. The rewards for us as students all center on control. You control your mind, and your future. If students don’t think and make correct decisions for themselves, there are people who will do that for them. How do you feel when someone decides your life for you? It isn’t a matter of being stubborn and deciding to do something just because you can. It is all about choosing things for yourself that bring good things to you not bad.
We are an urban district with a large minority population. There are over 19,000 students in our school district. Of these students, 44% are African Americans, 35% Hispanic, 17% Caucasian and 4% of other ethnic groups. From this population, 76% qualify for free or reduced lunch and 22% are English Language Learners. There is great significance in this fact. We are a large school and we possess something that other schools do not have, and that is diversity. And why is diversity a positive thing? For one thing it teaches us in a direct way, to work together between races and groups. Every day there isn’t a race related fight, everyday students of different ethnic groups become friends, every day you work in a study group with someone different from yourself, you are learning the art of real cooperation. This is a strength, not a weakness. Another thing that diversity brings to our school is the power of bringing together many different points of view from many different cultures. This is our schools brain, sharp and able to adjust to many different challenges.
So if you are good at reading and math, reach out and teach another student. I makes the material clearer in your mind and you help someone who might have failed if you hadn’t stepped in. You need to make friends in this way, because friends are strength, enemies are weakness.