A bar raised for all. Baltimore County attracts national attention for its efforts to increase the level of every student’s achievement.

In the United States, the "achievement gap" in student test scores can be seen through any lenses: from race and gender to income, special needs, and language barriers.

But many students who don’t fit into any traditionally disadvantaged category aren’t meeting the educational standards required for today’s economy. Call it the gap between performance and potential.

School systems also find they have their own achievement gaps: The neediest schools often have the fewest well-qualified teachers. Minority students are sometimes discouraged from taking advanced classes.

In the not-too-distant past, struggling students in some of Baltimore County’s high schools could have opted for courses like "Consumer Math" instead of algebra. They might have been nudged toward a host of easy classes that would get them to graduation day but would prepare them for little else in life.

That didn’t sit well with Superintendent Joe Hairston. Three years ago, he eliminated all nonrigorous courses. For example, all students would be required to take algebra. They’d get support until they passed the statewide High School Assessment (HSA) in that subject and in three others – tests that will determine eligibility to graduate starting with the class of 2009, this year’s freshmen. Last fall, the district offered parents algebra workshops so they could help their kids with homework.

"In this era of accountability … it made no sense to continue to offer meaningless courses," Dr. Hairston says. "Moreover, we’re finding out that if you create stretch goals for children, even the most challenged students will make a greater effort, and the experience alone puts them in a much better place."

That’s one of the decisions Hairston is most proud of when he talks about efforts to close "achievement gaps." To him, that primarily means the gaps between students and standards, with the bar continuously being set higher as the economy creates more knowledge-based jobs. He doesn’t frame the issue as a matter of race or income, though the district is keenly aware of such gaps and is dedicated to distributing resources to eliminate them.

By Stacy A. Teicher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Full Story: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0420/p13s01-legn.html?s=hns

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