I attended the recent Title 1 conference in
Salt Lake City and was pleased to sit alongside Chris Weber and Shane Templeton
on a panel facilitated by Lissa Pijanowski to talk about our work and reference
the RTI Roadmap that Chris and I just
had published. Many of you are aware of Title 1 and how it began fifty years
ago as an initiative of then President Johnson who wanted to ensure equity for
all by increasing access to a basic education, Remarkably, and fifty years later,
there still seems to be increasing needs for equity and new demands for an
educated citizenry.
From their website I was able to glean this
about the National Title I Association:
…dedicated to improving and implementing the Title I
program so that more children reach their academic potential. The Association
provides educational leaders at the state and local levels with the opportunity
to work together to share ideas on effective and innovative programs, identify
problems and solutions, and represent the needs of Title I families.
This is in support of the twenty-one
million students across the fifty states, and territories; many who experience
abject poverty (the rate of childhood poverty has grown over the last decade
and represents more than one-fifth of the population) while also trying to
alter their life chances through the best vehicle available to them –
education.
During our session, we heard from many
determined educators who weren’t looking for excuses or the magic wand to make
everything better. They recognized the struggle, shared successes, and took
notes on the successes of others. They probed with deep meaningful questions
designed to solve a few more challenges back home – or at the very least add
another wrinkle to the plans.
A recent post I wrote for the Solution Tree
blog site asked “What's the difference between schools?”(http://www.solution-tree.com/blog/whats-the-difference/ …)
and in it I proposed that the difference really isn’t in our students, it’s in
the way we view them. Dedicated educators creating a collective will overcome
even the direst of circumstances. As I wandered around the conference and sat
as a member of the panel, I saw many of those educators.
As I contemplate the work that lies ahead
and acknowledge the work that has been done, I am reminded of the words of Ron
Edmonds:
We can, whenever and wherever we choose,
successfully teach
all children whose schooling is of interest to
us; we already know
more than we need to do that; whether or not we
do it must
finally depend on how we feel about the fact
that we haven't so far.
He said that in 1979.
It’s time for us to demonstrate our response to how we feel about closing the
gap for those students who will, otherwise, be unable to successfully
transition to the next phase of their lives.
