New website empowers educators to close opportunity gaps
The CSU Center to Close the Opportunity Gap has launched its Clearinghouse featuring resources that boost academic achievement and overall well-being among California students, and it is inviting educators to contribute to it.
The CCOG Clearinghouse includes programs, practices and policies shown to close opportunity gaps among students of all ages, from pre-kindergarten through college, especially those from marginalized communities.
Educators and administrators are encouraged to submit initiatives that focus on the whole student, meaning not only academic success but also their social-emotional and behavioral health and college- and career-readiness.
“Our focus is on positive student outcomes,” said Cara Richards-Tutor, co-director of the Center to Close the Opportunity Gap and a professor in the special education program at Cal State Long Beach.
“We don’t just care about how they do on their state tests; we also care about their overall success and well-being.”
VIDEO: Learn more about the clearinghouse
The clearinghouse has been in the works for four years, ever since the California Legislature funded the Center to identify strategies shown to eliminate equity gaps in education, and to share them with educators throughout the state.
The CCOG was established at CSULB in partnership with San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton and San Jose State. The center shares expertise through presentations, research publications, webinars, an annual Educators Summit and now the clearinghouse.
Users can search the site for best practices by topic such as literacy or behavior supports, and groups, such as multilingual learners or students with disabilities.
At least two people with subject-matter expertise will review each new submission using a rubric published on the website. They will look for evidence that the practice, program or policy has worked not just once but multiple times before approving it for publication.
“It could be a practice, program, or policy that happens at the classroom level, at the school level, at the district level or even at the county level,” Richards-Tutor said.
Approved resources will receive a Center to Close the Opportunity Gap Award Badge for a “Practice of Promise,” “Program of Promise,” or “Policy of Promise.”
Willa Rose Fynn, a teacher on special assignment with the Long Beach Unified School District, submitted “Play in ECE,” which received a “Practice of Promise” badge. It is a compilation of resources for caregivers, teachers and early childhood educators that promotes play among young students.
Play is the natural language of children and integral to their early development, said Fynn, who wrote her dissertation on the subject and has worked in special education for 15 years, beginning in New York City.
Educators can use play to lessen the harmful effects of the toxic stress many students bring to the classroom and to build positive relationships between students and caring adults, she said. Educators can also discern a lot about how children learn by observing how they play, Fynn said.
Since kids who live in poverty and otherwise historically marginalized communities disproportionately suffer from toxic stress, Fynn said, promoting play among them helps close the types of opportunity gaps targeted by the Center.
I know play to be very powerful and also increasingly put on the back burner in classrooms,” Fynn said of her decision to submit “Play in ECE” to the clearinghouse.
“I want play and learning to be synonymous,” she said. “My dream would be to build the world’s greatest playground here in Long Beach, California, and to reimagine early childhood education, where we are observing kids in play.”
The clearinghouse, including a link to submit a resource, can be found at https://ccog.calstate.edu.
