One of the biggest mistakes of No Child Left Behind was that it required low-achieving schools to perform without addressing the root causes of their low-achievement. You can tell an athlete to run, but she won’t get far if her leg is broken. You can tell a student to learn, but she won’t learn much if she’s battling the conditions of poverty.
When we address the hunger, fear, sickness, exhaustion, stress, trauma, malnutrition and more that our students face every single day, we discover that they can achieve far more than we ever give them credit. The following story is a shining example of what happens when we actually address the needs of our children. Read and/or listen to the full story on NPR.
“Through her unconventional focus on addressing poverty, Superintendent Tiffany Anderson has been credited with rapidly improving the school district of Jennings, Mo.”
Source: The Superintendent Who Turned Around A School District By Tackling Poverty : NPR
