Closing The Achievement Gap Essay

Closing the Achievement Gap

The question is, does educational leadership have an impact on student achievement and the ability to close the achievement gap? Dr. Reeves references thirty years of research on this particular question; two thousand five hundred case studies conducted by John Goodlet in the 1980s, meta-analysis conducted by Robert Marzano, Brian McNulty and Tim Waters in the 1990s and quantitative analyses of more than two thousand schools conducted by the Learning and Leadership Center in the 21st century. Three decades of research has proven that specific educational leadership actions do have an impact on the ability to close the achievement gap in schools. Three leadership practices have been identified; leadership values, monitoring of adults as

Reeves does say, “Beware of the silver bullet.” There is no one cause for an effect but a combination of causes. Professional development is not the fix or silver bullet for a problem especially if that professional development is done in isolation. All too often schools have one professional development for a particular topic and expect huge outcomes which is not the case. Dr. Reeves noted that for professional development to be successful it has to be linked to the six or fewer goals. Along with professional development comes monitoring. Leaders have to monitor the teachers to ensure the practices and lessons that were taught during professional development are being implemented and practiced in the classroom. Monitoring not only means the collect of data, it means leaders need to be visible and assessable. If professional development is to be useful it must also be linked to student needs, meaning it has to be based on the population the school or district is serving. There is no one thing or silver bullet that can close the achievement gap. For professional development to be effective it must be focused, deeply studied, and measured it will then have an impact on student