TOPEKA, Kan. – A nationally recognized researcher addressed poverty in education when speaking to the Governor’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice Subcommittee on Education Thursday. Co-chair and TPS Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson led the meeting.
William Parrett is the Founder of the Center for School Improvement and Policy Studies at Boise State. Parrett talked about a study of 12 nationally recognized high-poverty, high-performance schools. All are scoring better than their state average in all subjects for 3 years or more.
He used a Virginia Beach, Virginia elementary as an example.
“What you’re looking at is a school that over the course of about 5 years transformed from being a high poverty, underachieving– dramatically underachieving school to a high poverty, high performing school,” Parrett explained.
He and his fellow researchers have identified 5 key things that help disrupt poverty in schools: caring relationships, high expectations and support, commitment to equity, professional accountability for learning, and courage and willingness to take action.
The subcommittee then heard from the chair of the Governor’s Council on Education, former KCK Superintendent Dr. Cindy Lane about their work.
