By Dr. Vernard T. Gant
Director of ACSI Urban School Services
For millions of children, the approach to education in this nation is simply not working. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the nation’s urban districts. The chart in the attachment below paints a glaring picture of the dismal academic state of affairs for urban African American, Latino, and under resourced children. White urban children perform near or above the 60th percentile in fourth-grade reading, whereas their Black, Hispanic, and lower-income classmates hover around the 30th percentile. This nation has spent trillions of dollars on education over the past several years, amounting to the children at the top being educated and the children at the bottom simply being schooled. The conventional response has been to give the children at the bottom more instructions, more materials, and more time. The results, however, are not encouraging— the needle has barely moved. For example, there is a gap of more than 53 percentile points between Black and White children in fourth-grade reading in Atlanta. Five years ago the gap was 58 points. Though there is an intense national emphasis on and effort toward closing the achievement gap, at the current rate it will take another 50 years before there is educational parity in Atlanta.
The challenge of educating the children at the bottom has been at the heart of the discussions about education reform, political debate, and societal welfare. Simply put, most struggling learners—namely Black, Brown, and underresourced children—lack the kind of learning foundation that makes strong academic achievement (see The Meantime, volume 7, issue 2). These children start behind and fall further behind as they matriculate through school.
In essence, traditional schooling takes a two-fold approach to their education. First is the structural or tier one approach. This approach provides the student with the basics, or core knowledge, of learning. All students are recipients of this academic protocol, which is centered on the academic three Rs. The rest of their education builds on and around these core disciplines. The children who master these disciplines perform as high achievers.
The children who don’t master these disciplines struggle to learn, and they become candidates for additional assistance. Struggling learners fall into the second tier of the traditional educational protocol. When the basic instructional approach fails, these students are given supplemental or additional support, usually in the form of tutoring and more time on task. In severe cases, students are placed in a special education program that basically accommodates their academic abilities. Supplemental education is the response to the shortfall of structural education, and it can be illustrated in the below manner.
As indicated by the achievement chart in the attachment below, this educational protocol just doesn’t work for most urban children. There is a critical underlying reason: Most struggling students do not possess the cognitive skills or learning foundation for effective learning. The chart illustrates the impact that cognitive skills have on learning. Additional reading periods for a child who has poor “Word Attack” or “Auditory Processing” cognitive skills will do little to improve that child’s reading performance. Until and unless the child’s foundation is addressed and strengthened, structural and supplemental efforts will continue to fall short of their intended goals of effectively educating the child and producing high achievement.
Foundational Education
Heretofore, cognitive skills assessment and treatment were out of reach for most urban schools. Dr. Ken Gibson has formed a new company called BrainSkills to provide an effective and affordable online program. The BrainSkills and the ACSI Urban School Services Department are pleased to announce that online instruments for identifying and treating cognitive skills deficiencies are available to students in our member urban schools as a membership service at no additional cost. That’s right! This program is free to all ACSI urban schools. All ACSI urban schools can use this innovative educational break-through to educate their students more effectively. Imagine having at your disposal a snapshot of each student’s cognitive skills strengths and weaknesses. That information alone would be more telling than practically any other assessment instrument you are currently using. Now imagine having an online program that treats and strengthens cognitive skills deficiencies. Your school can provide this service without the need for additional staffing or training.
This issue of The Meantime is dedicated to walking you through the process of setting up and implementing this invaluable resource in your school. Articles in this issue will both inform and instruct you, providing you with what you need to get started. All these articles can be found on the ACSI page of the BrainSkills website.
We welcome this opportunity to provide your school and students with a tool we believe could help revolutionize their educational experience and academic performance. If you would like your school to participate or if you have additional questions, please contact the program coordinator.
Phone: 719.528.6906
Email
Walking You Through the Process
- Section 1, an article by Dr. Ken Gibson, introduces cognitive skills and the impact they have on learning.
- Section 2, the BrainSkills Implementation Summary, provides an overview of the rollout of this program to ACSI urban schools.
- Section 3 addresses the online Cognitive Skills Assessment Tool.
Part 1 provides an overview of the Gibson Cognitive Skills Test (GCST), which is designed as a screening tool for cognitive skills. The department is working with BrainSkills to standardize the test in order to generate a report like the one above. Once this is complete, a profile of each student’s cognitive skills strengths and weaknesses will be available to you. The profile will indicate the student’s underlying academic abilities and inform the educator about what must be addressed in order to enhance achievement.
Part 2 explains the standardization process.
- Section 4 addresses the core exercises.
Part 1 is an overview of the core exercises designed to strengthen cognitive skills.
Part 2 provides instructions for implementing the core exercises in a school.
- Section 5, part 1, provides step-by-step instructions for registering students.
- Section 5, part 2, provides instructions for group registration.
- Section 6, FAQs, provides a synopsis of the program.
The Meantime Volume 7 Number 3