Robert L. Copeland
Superintendent of Schools, Piscataway Board of Education

We can certainly address the achievement gaps within our school systems. It will, however take a concerted effort both at the schoolhouse and the statehouse. We can take advantage of the work done in many of the developed countries that now outperform the United States. International benchmarking research done by the NCEE demonstrates that all schools need strong content capable teachers, a funding stream that supports the neediest students, assessments that are rigorous and thought provoking and State policies that promote learning not just performance. In our district we focus on multiple paths of support for all students along with strong curriculum development and appropriate use of student data.

Edmund W. Gordon
Richard March Hoe Professor, Emeritus of Psychology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Closing the gap in academic achievement is a goal to which the nation has given considerable attention for the past 50 years. In some communities it has become an educational professed priority since the 1999 College Board® Report, "Reaching the Top." However, in our society closing the achievement has not gained status as a functional priority to which institutional, government and personal commitments have been made to address.

In my work on the affirmative development of academic ability, I advocate for a tri-fold approach to the problem of the achievement gap:

At the most primary level is the call for changes in the distribution of access to the resources and power in the social order — cultivation of a sense of agency, efficacy and power to influence one's life chances is fundamental.

At the second level Instrumental to the achievement of equality in the outcomes of education is equitable access to effective teaching and learning transactions. Appropriately rich and sufficient opportunities to learn in school and out of school are in my view essential. However, it must always be remembered that education is a primary responsibility of parents and the more mature members of human societies. Education is a quintessential characteristic of being human. In modern societies government has assumed that responsibility as families have decreased in their capacity to do so. With that assumption of responsibility has come the control of the education enterprise. If the state decides that education will serve a limited function for some of its members, those members will be under educated. Given the ineffectiveness of schooling for so many low status members of this society, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the achievement gap is an intended outcome of the state's assumption of that responsibility.

If that argument holds, the third level of intervention to close the achievement gap must come from the people who are intentionally being under educated — the children who are the mal-treated learners and their parents who are the first and last defenders of their education. In the days of more pronounced racial and economic segregation, some of our parents and some marginalized communities developed cultural forms in celebration and support of high levels of academic and personal development. Du Bois' "talented tenth" were the products of that effort. Our parents, despite their marginalization, did what was necessary to ensure that some of us became well educated persons, capable of intellective competence and agentic behavior. At the third level it is the people themselves who must educate themselves.

Robert Moses strongly urges that education in the USA must become a civil right, indeed, a human right. We agree. For the closing of the achievement gap to become a priority in this country, the achievement of excellence and equity in education will need to become a political cause behind which masses of people can be mobilized. And such a political effort must not be a protest demand alone. Yes, we make the political demand for academic achievement as a universal right, but we also demand of ourselves that academic achievement be engaged as a civil liberty. We will assert the liberty and effort as free citizens to become educated even as we demand our civil right to be educated.

David C. Hespe
Chief of Staff, State of New Jersey Department of Education

Making efforts to close the achievement gap a top priority can start at the state level, as it has in New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie, Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf and the State Board of Education all are focused on ensuring that every child in New Jersey — regardless of hometown, economic status or race — has access to a high-quality education. We are committed to reforming our education system so every student in the Garden State has the opportunity to graduate high school fully equipped to enter the workforce or college.

New Jersey also is involved in a multi-state commitment to increase the rigor of curriculum and assessments, which will benefit all students. This partnership is an example of how state-led efforts can result in a national undertaking to advance meaningful education reforms.

Dorothy Strickland
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University (retired)

To make closing the achievement gap a high priority in our nation, leadership such as the highly successful collaboration between the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, which established the Common Core State Standards, must be applied. The approach must be comprehensive with an emphasis on the early learning years, the middle school years, and the need to meet increasingly demanding requirements for college and career readiness. Specific goals must be established with guidelines for implementation that stress collaboration within and across states at all levels. Related goals and suggestions for implementation must be established for ALL those who influence the quality of our children's education. These include parents; state and local boards of education; educators at all levels, including higher education with specific attention to teacher preparation programs; the business community; and elected officials. Implementation guidelines would include a system for sharing ideas and making periodic progress reports.

In a world in which we are inevitably interconnected and interdependent, this initiative should be approached as an all out effort to preserve the well-being of ALL our nation's citizens.