Closing the Achievement Gap

About a year ago, I wrote up a list of the programs in the Bay Area that focus on "closing the achievement gap".

Thanks to Coach Brown  for pointing me to an Education Wonks article I missed, I've just learned of another network, the Nativity Network

...a national movement helping urban children enter some of the region's selective private high schools, and from there, win admission to college.

We hear the bad news a lot.  How about some good news?

Sources:
Nativity Network (old site)
Nativity Network (new site)
Saint Louis Today May 27 2006
ZhournalWiki
Racematters Reprints Freedman's article on Nativity Network, which closes with this:

The temptation in discovering a school like Nativity Prep and a system like the Nativity Network is to look for easy ways to copy them. Certainly, these schools offer a replicable model of rigorous curriculum, unstinting standards, small class size and individualized attention. But there is something else, something more ineffable, something that can't be learned at a workshop or in graduate school.

"It sounds syrupy, but this school is about unconditional love," said Ciro Poppiti, a graduate of Salesianum High and Princeton University who teaches civics at Nativity Prep as a volunteer. "You can see in the kids' eyes, this sense of, 'Why do these people care about me? These white people? Do they want me to become a priest? Is this a secret seminary?' And then, gradually, they realize this is a gift. The only strings attached are to study hard and respect others. You do that and you keep getting the gift."

Comments

[panasianbiz]

I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. It is such an inspiration to read stories such as these, to realize that it is possible to make a difference, to see the examples of those whose programs are helping so many.