Master Plan will help eliminate achievement gap
By Charles Weis
Special to the Mercury News, 11/10/10
Just over one year ago, I was joined by San Jose' Mayor Chuck Reed, local educators, business leaders and community organizations, in launching a crucial educational initiative called SJ2020. The goal of the initiative is simple: to eliminate the achievement gap in San José by the year 2020.
The initiative's impetus was our deep concern over the gap in academic performance between white non-Hispanic and Asian-American students on the one hand; and Hispanic and African-American students on the other. If we don't eliminate this gap, our students, their families and our entire community will suffer for generations to come.
The key to prosperity for any community is an educated citizenry, equipped with the skills to succeed in the modern workplace. Unless our schools can provide all our students with that education and those skills, we will be forever bled by the subsequent costs–in joblessness, in health care, in crime…and in the tragic loss of human potential.
Since launching SJ2020, we have already seen progress. Student test scores on grade-level state assessments have risen across the spectrum of subgroups, and the gap has slightly narrowed. However, we have a long ways to go.
SJ2020 has four major focus areas: early learning; home and community; school and classroom; and college and career success.
On Monday, November 22, we will be taking a key step in that first area, by launching the Santa Clara County Early Learning Master Plan, in an event at Adobe in downtown San Jose.
The Master Plan–created by a collaboration of education professionals, community members, civic leaders, and child development advocates–is a decisive and dynamic document. It outlines a vision and a strategic mission, and lists metrics for implementation of an early learning plan over the next seven years.
Here's why this is so important. High-quality early learning enables children to develop the skills they need to succeed in school; helps to reduce the "readiness gap," which is the disparity among students' skill levels as they enter the early grades; correlates to students' attaining higher levels of education, and ultimately employment; and lowers the level of incarceration.
The Santa Clara County plan recognizes that early learning is an essential element of the learning continuum, which starts at birth. The plan also recognizes that equitable access is crucial to success. Every family in every corner of the county must have the opportunity to place their children in a safe, nurturing and educationally rich early-learning environment.
Whenever I am out stumping for early learning, the question inevitably arises: How are you going to pay for it? Given the California budget, it's a question that's harder than ever to answer. But when the question does come up, I always share two things.
First, early learning is a proven long-term investment that stimulates economic growth. Economists have found that high-quality early childhood education offers one of the highest returns of any public investment–more than $7 for every dollar spent. In the long term, it saves government spending on K-12 education, public assistance and the criminal justice system, and increases tax revenues as a result of higher earnings.
Second, if we have learned anything from the past, we know that California will return to prosperity. Times will get better. And when that time does come, we need to have a plan and a system already in place. We have deferred action on this endeavor for too long already, and we are paying the price today for our inability to act.
Now is the time to get going. The Early Learning Master Plan is a vigorous step in the right direction.
Dr. Charles Weis is the Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools. To view the Early Learning Master Plan, visit www.sccoe.org
Date last updated: November 16, 2010
