Challenges and Solutions in Urban Education Student Achievement

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Morgan Barth, former principal of Amistad High School, had one of the state’s most successful track records. As principal, Morgan Barth led the urban high school to its number one ranking in the state and a top-20 ranking in the country a few years ago, according to US News and World Report. This success story is a bright spot in a landscape typically characterized by a number of challenges.

Urban schools face many challenges that hinder learning and student achievement. Students who attend urban schools typically have lower test scores and lower graduation rates than their suburban peers. This makes closing the achievement gap one of the nation’s most pressing social justice and civil rights issues. In order to close the achievement gap, it is important to understand some of the root causes.

School Choice: Affluent and middle class parents are able to exercise school choice. They can afford to make the choice to move to communities with strong schools or to pay for private schools. Poorer parents do not have these choices. Many districts force students to attend their zoned school, regardless of that school’s performance. This traps hundreds of thousands of low-income families in failing schools. A solution is to ensure that all districts allow families to choose the best school for their child by allowing school funding to follow the student to out-of-district schools, charters, magnets or private schools.

Housing Segregation: Communities with concentrations of low-income housing tend to have low-performing schools. As noted above, it is important that all families (regardless of income) have access to great schools. One solution to this problem is to allow school funding to follow the child to any school his or her family chooses. Another is for cities to use housing vouchers (rather than public housing) to reduce housing segregation.

Teacher Preparation and Retention: Schools that serve lower income communities tend to have newer teachers who have less training and support, and who turn over more quickly. Districts should incentivize the best and most experienced teachers to teach in low income schools. Districts should also turn to proven teacher training programs such as Teach for America, Relay Graduate School of Education or TNTP to help ensure that teachers receive better training and support.

Early Childhood Education: Another factor at play, relates to student preparation upon entering high school. In urban settings during a child’s primary grades, the emphasis might not necessarily be on education. In many cases, parents who have to work many hours, parents headed by a single parent, or low-income households create an environment not conducive to the kind of consistent exposure to learning found in other communities -- the kind of learning that promotes literacy in students upon reaching high school. A solution is ensuring that all students have excellent and low-cost (or no-cost) options for daycare and pre-school.

Tips for Students to Maximize Academic Success

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Former principal and regional superintendent of private and charter schools, Morgan Barth has always taken academic success seriously and maintained a strong focus on academic preparation. Morgan Barth is an expert in instructional design and has led schools to strong records of academic success.

Academic success is guided by teachers and instructors, but it is always up to students to take that guidance and apply it. Some of the simplest tools and methods are the most effective at ensuring achievement.

For instance, students should focus on planning their time realistically, as this helps allocate free time without sacrificing responsibilities, and it’s also a good exercise to start learning for later use in life. A good idea is to keep a planner to schedule activities rather than trusting dates and times to memory.

Another aspect is studying, where many students rely on rote repetition and memory techniques. Memorizing certain information is important, but it requires a lot of concentration and focus. Otherwise, retention will suffer and the effort will go to waste. Using flashcards, diagrams, and other tools can make the process more efficient.

A pillar of academic success, for better or worse, is test-taking. Learning how to take tests successfully should be another priority for students. Paying attention to directions, answering the easy parts first, and being attentive to qualifiers are all important test-taking skills.

Three Contributors to the Achievement Gap

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High school principal Morgan Barth has guided several schools with mostly minority student populations and low-income students. As an educator, Morgan Barth is aware of how detrimental the achievement gap can be for these students and how important it is to understand its causes. The achievement gap, which refers to the disparities in academic performance between students from different ethnic and socioeconomic groups, occurs at three levels of education - the district level, in the classroom, and on an individual basis.

At the district level, school culture, as well as overt and hidden practices, affect student performance. Inequitable levels of school funding and uneven distribution of good teachers, as well as the inconsistent tracking of special education and advanced placement students, all contribute to exacerbating achievement gaps among minority and low-income students.

At the classroom level, struggling learners are disproportionately affected by a limited belief in their abilities. Teacher expectations play an important role in student achievement and in some cases, implicit biases can cause teachers to underestimate students’ abilities.

Finally, on an individual student level, there is the threat of stereotyping that leads some students to be perceived through a negative lens. In addition, minority and low-income students often have internalized beliefs about their abilities, or lack thereof, which affect their performance significantly.

How Cost Stands as the Greatest Challenge to College Access

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Seasoned educator Morgan Barth served Achievement First Amistad High School from 2016 to 2018 as principal. During Morgan Barth’s tenure at Amistad, the school placed a strong focus on academic preparations to ensure that its students, the majority of which are from low-income families, can get college access.

College access is a particular challenge to many students representing the minority and low-income sectors. While researches proved that social disadvantage and the lack of academic readiness are challenges to hurdle, cost still stands as the greatest challenge to postsecondary education.

In a report done by Education Week, in 2010, 70 percent of high school graduates were enrolling in either a two or four-year postsecondary course. However, the vast majority of these students dropped out within two years. By the time these students reach the age of 27, only 40 percent of them have earned either an associate degree or a baccalaureate degree.

In 2010, the tuition and other fees for in-state students in public four-year colleges reached $7,605 annually. This is a huge leap from the cost in 2002 which only stands at $4,115. In the same year, the tuition and other fees in private not-for-profit four-year colleges reached $27,293, while the tuition and other fees in public two-year colleges reached $2,713.

While education costs continue to rise, the number of academically qualified low-income high school graduates enrolled in four-year college degree dropped from 54 percent in 1992 to 40 percent in 2004, while students belonging in moderate-income families fell from 59 percent to 53 percent in the same period.

The KIPP Leadership Competency Model

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Educational professional Morgan Barth possesses nearly two decades of classroom and administrative experience. While serving as a dean for Elm City College Prep, Morgan Barth attended an intensive course from KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program).

In addition to overseeing a national network of public charter schools, KIPP offers highly respected school leadership development programs. KIPP measures and evaluates leadership performance and development based on its leadership competency model. The model is based on the characteristics associated with leadership at high-performing KIPP schools.

At the center of the model is student-focused leadership. According to the framework, a student-focused leader builds meaningful relationships with students by being respectful and maintaining high expectations and standards for all students. Ideal KIPP leaders are also results-driven, flexible, and resilient.

Additionally, KIPP leadership programs encourage participants to improve their managing skills by refining their ability to inspire and direct others and recognize and cultivate talent.