Based on its commitment to a comprehensive approach to addressing educational inequalities, the Campaign for Educational Equity has launched a major Research Initiative, under the direction of Professor Amy Stuart Wells, Deputy Director for Research.  

 In the first phase of this Research Initiative, the Campaign is sponsoring the research and writing of twelve large-scale “Reviews of Research” structured around the twelve areas that Campaign staff and associates have identified as key components of a comprehensive approach to educational equity.  The “12 Educational Essentials” are:

1. High Quality Early Childhood Education Programs
2. Rigorous and Challenging Curricula for All Students
3. High Quality Teaching
4. Effective, Sustained Educational Leadership
5. Appropriate Class Sizes  
6. Appropriate Physical and Mental Health Care Services
7. Appropriate Academic Support for English Language Learners
8. Appropriate Academic Support for Special Education Students
9. Appropriate Academic Support for Children in Areas of Concentrated Poverty
10. Effective After-School, Community and Summer Programs
11. Effective Parent Involvement and Family Support
12. Racially and Socio-Economically Diverse Schools 

 “The central purpose of this Research Initiative is to thoughtfully and thoroughly investigate what we know from existing social science research on comprehensive educational approaches to education for low-income children of color and then fill the gaps in that literature with comprehensive research projects that draw on the wide range of expertise within the TC faculty,” said Wells.

 Each of these reviews will summarize the existing research in the areas, offer analytic insights on the equity issues raised and identify gaps in the research that need to be addressed.  Once completed, they will be posted on the Campaign’s website and disseminated as a series of white papers.

 The first of these reviews, on Early Childhood Education, was recently completed by Dr. Sharon Lynn Kagan, Teachers College Professor Early Childhood Policy and Co-Director of The National Center for Children and Families.  Entitled “American Early Childhood Education: Preventing or Perpetuating Inequity,” Dr. Kagan’s analysis states that early childhood services not only need to be expanded, as many child advocates have argued, but they also need to be systematically reformed otherwise, early childhood education will only perpetuate educational inequities and not prevent them. 

 The remaining Educational Essentials topics will be written by the following TC faculty and faculty from collaborating institutions: 

1. Rigorous, Challenging Curricula for All by Professors Margaret Crocco and Anand Marri
2. High Quality Teaching by Professors Michelle Knight and Thomas Hatch
3. Effective, Sustained Educational Leadership by Professor Carolyn Reihl
4. Appropriate Class Size by Professor Douglas Ready
5. Appropriate Academic Support for English Language Learners by Professors Ofelia Garcia and JoAnne Kleifgen
6. Appropriate Physical and Mental Health Care Services
7. Appropriate Academic Support for Special Education Students by Professor Margaret McLaughlin, University of Maryland
8. Appropriate Academic Support for Children in Areas of Concentrated Poverty by Professors Amy Stuart Wells and Craig Richards
9. Effective After-School, Community and Summer Programs by Professors Jodie Roth, Jeannie  Brooks-Gunn, and Margo Gardener
10. Effective Parent Involvement and Family Support by Professors Edmund Gordon, Beatrice L. Bridglall, and Heather Weiss, Harvard University
11. Racially and Socio-Economically Diverse Schools  by Professors Amy Stuart Wells and Craig Richards

For a copy of the first Review of Research, click here

Published Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007