The challenge is to provide equity and equality in education for ALL

students. And to meet this challenge, fundamental shifts need to

occur in teacher development, program design, curricula and material,

and instructional and assessment practices.

www.edutechnia.org

The goal should be to create a school-wide system of

interventions that provides all students with additional time

and support when they experience difficulty in their

learning. www.edutechnia.org

Schools and communities must be globally engaged in

terms of education, the environment, healthcare, and

other quality of life issues that form the very fabric of our

urban communities. www.edutechnia.org

The structures and conditions appear not to be in

place for the success of a strategic action plan to

close the achievement gap. www.edutechnia.org

Schools will be successful if they focus on

their people and their priorities addressing

global challenges and opportunities. www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world

this is lining up for lunch. . .

www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world

this is determination. . .

www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world

this is responsibility . . .

www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world

this is collaboration and teamwork. . .www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world

this is searching. . .www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world

this is looking for new opportunities. . .www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world

this is getting to the American Dream!www.edutechnia.org

As we can see, these children are heroes in their small

villages. They are solving real-world problems, using real-

world thinking and contributing to their communities using

higher order thinking skills in real life situations:

• remembering

• understanding

• applying

• analyzing

• evaluating

• creating

When they arrive at our schools from third

world countries they have to meet our

standards . . . www.edutechnia.org

• Arizona has been a port of entry for many of our

students and their families.

• Many of them come from poor living standards.www.edutechnia.org

Are they ready to meet the standards?

www.edutechnia.org

Rigorous standards might further disadvantage our most vulnerable

children. In our current time-bound system, this fear is well founded.

Applied inflexibly, high standards could cause great mischief.

State Standards

Holding all students to the same high standards means that some

students will need more time, just as some may require less.

Standards are then not a barrier to success but a mark of

accomplishment.

State Standards

Physically overloaded

Cognitively overloaded

Analysis

www.edutechnia.org

We might not be providing the learning

environment for ELL students to succeed.

www.edutechnia.org

"Child labor" is, generally speaking, work for

children that harms them or exploits them in some

way.www.edutechnia.org

Immigrant families settle in poor

neighborhoods and their children

attend hard-to-staff schools. These are

the schools that fail to make AYP,

with overcrowd classrooms, and

unqualified and underpay teachers.

This is a prescription for failure!

Inequalities in the system:

www.edutechnia.org

89 % of the families that

arrive from Latin America

share a common goal or

vision:

www.edutechnia.org

75 % of the families

that moved to America

share a common goal

or vision:

“Be part of the American Dream”

School and society have failed to capitalize on this strength!

We all know the phrase: Where there is a Will, there is a way!

The educational landscape has shifted in the past decade. Many emigrant or ELL

students are entering the US. schools with weak academic skills at the same

time that schools are emphasizing rigorous, standards-based curricula and high

stakes assessments.

www.edutechnia.org

ELL, especially those at beginning levels, are learning this challenging content in

a language they do not speak, read, or write proficiently. Some immigrant

students arrive at our schoolhouse doors with very limited formal schooling.

www.edutechnia.org

Changes in the geographic distribution of ELL present new challenges to the

numerous districts in these new destination states that have not served these

students in the past.

www.edutechnia.org

The lack of success in educating linguistically and culturally diverse students is

problematic because federal and state government expects all students to meet

high standards.

www.edutechnia.org

Furthermore, most of the standardized test that states use have been designed

for, and normed on native English speakers who have spent their educational

careers in U.S. schools. Thus, English learners are at a disadvantage.

www.edutechnia.org

Many English learners receive more of their instruction from content area teachers

or aides who have not had appropriate professional development to address their

second language development needs or to make content instruction

comprehensible. This situation hinders academic success.www.edutechnia.org

In order to develop the best educational programs for ELL, we need to

understand their diverse backgrounds. These learners bring a wide variety of

educational and cultural experiences to the classrooms as well as considerable

linguistics differences, and these characteristics have implications for instruction,

assessment, and program design.www.edutechnia.org

Conclusion:

Very often, students’ academic difficulties have more to do with the curriculum,

teaching methods, and classroom setting than with any deficit in the child.

Academic programs are not well-established, sheltered curricula and

appropriate resources are not readily available; most importantly, many teachers

are not trained to meet the needs of these second language learners.www.edutechnia.org

There is a large achievement gap

between ELL and native English

speakers across most program

models. For this gap to be closed,

students must gain three to four

more NCE (normal curve

equivalent) points each year than

English speakers gain.

www.edutechnia.org

Furthermore, one of the most critical issues facing educators in delivering

an instructional program appropriate for all students in their classes is:

• those with limited English proficiency

• those who excel academically

• those who are performing at grade level

• those with low academic levels

• those who find reading difficult

• those who have found persistent failure

• those who work hard but continue to struggle academically, and

• those with problematic behaviors

Therefore, it is a mythology to believe that we can bridge the achievement gap

under current learning environments and conditions. It is impossible for a

teacher to reach all children when some of them lack the necessary building

blocks of learning. www.edutechnia.org

For a teacher to pay significant attention to each individual

child in a class of twenty to forty students means individual

neglect for most children most of the time. www.edutechnia.org

Given the variability in these students’ backgrounds, it is clear that there is no

simple, one-size-fits all solution. They need different pathways for academic

success.

www.edutechnia.org

We need to search for a way to make our schools capable of addressing the

needs of increasingly diverse student populations and complexities associated

with the social, economic, and moral demands that society places on our

system of public education. www.edutechnia.org

The paradox is that the more the school tries to be fair in

allocating time, the more unfair the consequences. Providing

equal time for students who need more time guarantees

unequal results. If we genuinely intend to give every student

an equal opportunity to reach high academic standards, we

must understand that some students will require unequal

amounts of time, i.e., they will need additional time.

Improving student achievement is hard. It requires meaningful change

in the way educators do their work. It requires new structures, new

tools and new knowledge.

www.edutechnia.org

The real challenge of

globalization for public school is

closing the achievement gap.

The future belongs to the nation that best educates

its citizens. We have everything we need to be

that nation. And year after year, a stubborn gap

persists between how well white students are doing

compared to their African American and Latino

classmates. The relative decline of American

education is untenable for our economy, it's

unsustainable for our democracy, it's unacceptable

for our children -- and we can't afford to let it

continue. President Barak Obama

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How do we close the gap?

www.edutechnia.org

Technology is a great unrealized hope in

education reform. It can transform learning by

improving both the effectiveness of existing time

and making more time available through self-

guided instruction, both in school and out.

Technology makes it possible for

students to move at their own pace.

Effective learning technologies have

already demonstrated their ability to

pique student interest and increase

motivation, encouraging students not

only to spend more of their own time in

learning but also to be more deeply

involved in what they are doing.

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the

conditions in which they can learn.

www.edutechnia.org

Einstein

inspired

us with the

concept of

relativity,

E is the equalizer. . .

E brings Equity and Equality in Education

E energize the mind at the speed of light

EE = mc2

E = mc

The blueprint to close the achievement gap

between ELL and native English speakers

may lay in a powerful tool and a simple

formula:

www.edutechnia.org

2

In general, the concept of energy

refers to “the potential for causing

changes.” Energy is the force that

powers mental processes.

What is energy?

www.edutechnia.org

Manifestations of energy in the

conceptual age:

• Innovation

• Creativity

• Problem solving

• Critical thinking

• Wisdom

The ultimate objective of any educational enterprise is to improve

student achievement so that individuals may contribute to our

democracy, economy, and communities and live their own

American dreams.

www.edutechnia.org

E = mc

One-on-one computing is relatively

one giant leap for learning.

2

www.edutechnia.org

Learning at the speed of light

is the BIG BANG for closing

the achievement gap.

www.edutechnia.org