What we teach in school classrooms can set students up for life, so we need to build students' background knowledge over years of learning. But building this knowledge doesn't just happen it needs a coordinated, whole-school approach to curriculum planning.
An education gap between white students and their black and Hispanic peers is something to which most Americans have become accustomed. But this racial division of education and hence of prospects for the future is nothing less than tragic. The good news is that the racial divide in learning is a problem that can be fixed. Of course, it can only be fixed if education reform is approached in a commonsense and innovative way. Continuing to repeat the largely failed national policies and ever-increasing spending of the past decades is surely not common sense. One state, Florida, has demonstrated that meaningful academic improvement for students of all races and economic backgrounds is possible. In 1999, Florida enacted far-reaching K–12 education reform that includes public and private school choice, charter schools, virtual education, performance-based pay for teachers, grading of schools and districts, annual tests, curbing social promotion, and alternative teacher certification. As a
‘India had one of the longest durations of school closures – primary schools were closed for almost two years,’ Director of ASER Centre Wilima Wadhwa said.