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Article: Getting to the root of the gap: how your organization operates internally will affect student achievement initiatives.
- Article from:
- School Administrator
- Article date:
- August 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 American Association of School Administrators. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I have seen it happen over and over again in more than 10 years of working with school improvement teams. Team members prepare elaborate displays of data and do pretty good gap analyses to determine the areas varying the most from the standards.
Then immediately they jump to brainstorming and implementing initiatives to improve student performance in the identified areas. However, the step most critical to meeting rigorous achievement goals--developing a clear understanding of the root causes of the current state of achievement--is neglected or given short shrift.
It is easy to understand why. Educators tend to be problem solvers and action-oriented ...