The challenge is to provide equity and equality in education for ALL
students. And to meet this challenge, fundamental shifts need to
occur in teacher development, program design, curricula and material,
and instructional and assessment practices.
www.edutechnia.org

The goal should be to create a school-wide system of
interventions that provides all students with additional time
and support when they experience difficulty in their
learning. www.edutechnia.org

Schools and communities must be globally engaged in
terms of education, the environment, healthcare, and
other quality of life issues that form the very fabric of our
urban communities.
www.edutechnia.org

The structures and conditions appear not to be in
place for the success of a strategic action plan to
close the achievement gap.
www.edutechnia.org

Schools will be successful if they focus on
their people and their priorities addressing
global challenges and opportunities.
www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world
this is lining up for lunch. . .
www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world
this is determination. . .
www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world
this is responsibility . . .
www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world
this is collaboration and teamwork. . .
www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world
this is searching. . .
www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world
this is looking for new opportunities. . .
www.edutechnia.org

In some places around the world
this is getting to the American Dream!
www.edutechnia.org

As we can see, these children are heroes in their small
villages. They are solving real-world problems, using real-
world thinking and contributing to their communities using
higher order thinking skills in real life situations:
• remembering
• understanding
• applying
• analyzing
• evaluating
• creating

When they arrive at our schools from third
world countries they have to meet our
standards . . . www.edutechnia.org

• Arizona has been a port of entry for many of our
students and their families.
• Many of them come from poor living standards.
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Are they ready to meet the standards?
www.edutechnia.org

State Standards
Rigorous standards might further disadvantage our most vulnerable
children. In our current time-bound system, this fear is well founded.
Applied inflexibly, high standards could cause great mischief.

Holding all students to the same high standards means that some
students will need more time, just as some may require less.
Standards are then not a barrier to success but a mark of
accomplishment.
State Standards

Analysis
Physically overloaded
Cognitively overloaded
www.edutechnia.org

We might not be providing the learning
environment for ELL students to succeed.
www.edutechnia.org

\"Child labor\" is, generally speaking, work for
children that harms them or exploits them in some
way.
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Inequalities in the system:
Immigrant families settle in poor
neighborhoods and their children
attend hard-to-staff schools. These are
the schools that fail to make AYP,
with overcrowd classrooms, and
unqualified and underpay teachers.
This is a prescription for failure!
www.edutechnia.org

75 % of the families
that moved to America
share a common goal
or vision:
89 % of the families that
arrive from Latin America
share a common goal or
vision:
www.edutechnia.org

“Be part of the American Dream”
School and society have failed to capitalize on this strength!
We all know the phrase: Where there is a Will, there is a way!

The educational landscape has shifted in the past decade. Many emigrant or ELL
students are entering the US. schools with weak academic skills at the same
time that schools are emphasizing rigorous, standards-based curricula and high
stakes assessments.
www.edutechnia.org

ELL, especially those at beginning levels, are learning this challenging content in
a language they do not speak, read, or write proficiently. Some immigrant
students arrive at our schoolhouse doors with very limited formal schooling.
www.edutechnia.org

Changes in the geographic distribution of ELL present new challenges to the
numerous districts in these new destination states that have not served these
students in the past.
www.edutechnia.org

The lack of success in educating linguistically and culturally diverse students is
problematic because federal and state government expects all students to meet
high standards.
www.edutechnia.org

Furthermore, most of the standardized test that states use have been designed
for, and normed on native English speakers who have spent their educational
careers in U.S. schools. Thus, English learners are at a disadvantage.
www.edutechnia.org

Many English learners receive more of their instruction from content area teachers
or aides who have not had appropriate professional development to address their
second language development needs or to make content instruction
comprehensible. This situation hinders academic success.
www.edutechnia.org

In order to develop the best educational programs for ELL, we need to
understand their diverse backgrounds. These learners bring a wide variety of
educational and cultural experiences to the classrooms as well as considerable
linguistics differences, and these characteristics have implications for instruction,
assessment, and program design.
www.edutechnia.org

Conclusion:
Very often, students’ academic difficulties have more to do with the curriculum,
teaching methods, and classroom setting than with any deficit in the child.
Academic programs are not well-established, sheltered curricula and
appropriate resources are not readily available; most importantly, many teachers
are not trained to meet the needs of these second language learners.
www.edutechnia.org

There is a large achievement gap
between ELL and native English
speakers across most program
models. For this gap to be closed,
students must gain three to four
more NCE (normal curve
equivalent) points each year than
English speakers gain.
www.edutechnia.org

Furthermore, one of the most critical issues facing educators in delivering
an instructional program appropriate for all students in their classes is:
• those with limited English proficiency
• those who excel academically
• those who are performing at grade level
• those with low academic levels
• those who find reading difficult
• those who have found persistent failure
• those who work hard but continue to struggle academically, and
• those with problematic behaviors

Therefore, it is a mythology to believe that we can bridge the achievement gap
under current learning environments and conditions. It is impossible for a
teacher to reach all children when some of them lack the necessary building
blocks of learning. www.edutechnia.org

For a teacher to pay significant attention to each individual
child in a class of twenty to forty students means individual
neglect for most children most of the time.
www.edutechnia.org

Given the variability in these students’ backgrounds, it is clear that there is no
simple, one-size-fits all solution. They need different pathways for academic
success.
www.edutechnia.org

We need to search for a way to make our schools capable of addressing the
needs of increasingly diverse student populations and complexities associated
with the social, economic, and moral demands that society places on our
system of public education.
www.edutechnia.org

The paradox is that the more the school tries to be fair in
allocating time, the more unfair the consequences. Providing
equal time for students who need more time guarantees
unequal results. If we genuinely intend to give every student
an equal opportunity to reach high academic standards, we
must understand that some students will require unequal
amounts of time, i.e., they will need additional time.

Improving student achievement is hard. It requires meaningful change
in the way educators do their work. It requires new structures, new
tools and new knowledge.
www.edutechnia.org

The real challenge of
globalization for public school is
closing the achievement gap.

The future belongs to the nation that best educates
its citizens. We have everything we need to be
that nation. And year after year, a stubborn gap
persists between how well white students are doing
compared to their African American and Latino
classmates. The relative decline of American
education is untenable for our economy, it's
unsustainable for our democracy, it's unacceptable
for our children -- and we can't afford to let it
continue. President Barak Obama
www.edutechnia.org

How do we close the gap?
Technology is a great unrealized hope in
education reform. It can transform learning by
improving both the effectiveness of existing time
and making more time available through self-
guided instruction, both in school and out.
www.edutechnia.org

Technology makes it possible for
students to move at their own pace.
Effective learning technologies have
already demonstrated their ability to
pique student interest and increase
motivation, encouraging students not
only to spend more of their own time in
learning but also to be more deeply
involved in what they are doing.

Einstein
inspired
us with the
concept of
relativity,
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the
conditions in which they can learn.
www.edutechnia.org

E is the equalizer. . .
E brings Equity and Equality in Education
E energize the mind at the speed of light
2
EE = mc

The blueprint to close the achievement gap
between ELL and native English speakers
may lay in a powerful tool and a simple
formula: 2
E = mc
www.edutechnia.org

What is energy?
In general, the concept of energy
refers to “the potential for causing
changes.” Energy is the force that
powers mental processes.
www.edutechnia.org

Manifestations of energy in the
conceptual age:
• Innovation
• Creativity
• Problem solving
• Critical thinking
• Wisdom

The ultimate objective of any educational enterprise is to improve
student achievement so that individuals may contribute to our
democracy, economy, and communities and live their own
American dreams.
www.edutechnia.org

2
E = mc
One-on-one computing is relatively
one giant leap for learning.www.edutechnia.org

Learning at the speed of light
is the BIG BANG for closing
the achievement gap.
www.edutechnia.org