Last week, more than 100 community members, educators and city and school officials came together to share a meal and a vision for a future of equal opportunities for all children in Berkeley schools. The theory behind the effort, 2020 Vision, is that success at school should not be predictable based on a child’s race or ethnicity. The goal, as the name suggests, is to eradicate the achievement gap by the year 2020. As it stands, Hispanic and black students, as a group, consistently score lower than peers on standardized tests, while having higher rates of chronic absenteeism, truancy, suspension and dropping out altogether, according to a statement posted by Berkeley Alliance, which is spearheading the Vision 2020 effort. The first ever 2020 Vision community symposium, held at Longfellow Middle School on Oct. 11, was a celebration of this citywide effort to close the achievement gap and ensure academic success for all children in Berkeley. “I think it is making a difference,” said parent Abigail Surasky, who has children at Longfellow and Washington schools. “You do see the (achievement) numbers rising overall in the subgroups. It’s making everybody work more comprehensively and really look at the whole child.” The campaign, which launched in 2008 […]
Last week, more than 100 community members, educators and city and school officials came together to share a meal and a vision for a future of equal opportunities for all children in Berkeley schools. The theory behind the effort, 2020 Vision, is that success at school should not be predictable based on a child’s race or ethnicity. The goal, as the name suggests, is to eradicate the achievement gap by the year 2020. As it stands, Hispanic and black students, as a group, consistently score lower than peers on standardized tests, while having higher rates of chronic absenteeism, truancy, suspension and dropping out altogether, according to a statement posted by Berkeley Alliance, which is spearheading the Vision 2020 effort. The first ever 2020 Vision community symposium, held at Longfellow Middle School on Oct. 11, was a celebration of this citywide effort to close the achievement gap and ensure academic success for all children in Berkeley. “I think it is making a difference,” said parent Abigail Surasky, who has children at Longfellow and Washington schools. “You do see the (achievement) numbers rising overall in the subgroups. It’s making everybody work more comprehensively and really look at the whole child.” The campaign, which launched in 2008 […]