Unless they teach in a homogenous, high-income school setting, most educators struggle with the achievement gap. When distilled to its essence, the student learning gap can be attributed to the lack of academic readiness.

                To make up the deficit, students must have more time – more time for reading, more time for the cultural and artistic experiences that upper-middle-class students have regularly, more exposure to meaningful material and more time working with teachers who can help them understand what they don’t know.

                In Stoughton, a diverse, blue-collar school district of 3,700 students south of Boston, Mass., we have found a way to do this, one vacation at a time, and using before-school and after-school hours for additional academic support and enrichment.

Click here to read the rest of the article. Reprinted with permission from the May 2018 issue of School Administrator magazine, published by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.