Closing the Opportunity Gap: How state lawmakers can ensure

every child receives a fair and substantive opportunity to learn.

Tina Dove, M.Ed.

Director, National Opportunity

to Learn Campaign

Opportunity Gap vs. Achievement Gap

• The achievement gap between White students and Black and Latino

students is directly correlated to the “opportunity gap”—access to quality

schools and the resources needed for academic success.

Lost Opportunity 50 State Report

www.otlcampaign.org

The opportunity gap the achievement gap

Overview of the OTL Campaign

• 4 Core Resources

High-quality early childhood education

Well-trained, highly effective teachers

College and career-ready curriculum

Equitable resources and policies

Overall objective: to ensure that every child has a fair and substantive opportunity to learn.

What can state-level policy makers do?

• Increase overall school funding levels and ensure that funds are

equitably distributed.

• Support funding for highly qualified and effective teachers and other

professional staff in struggling schools.

• Adopt and equitably implement the Common Core State Standards with

Common Resource Standards

• Strengthen educational supports, including interventions that recognize

different learning styles, so that students remain on par with their

learning cohorts.

What can state-level policy makers do?

• Invest in teacher and leader preparation programs and ensure

curricula and training meets the needs of real-world classrooms

and schools.

• Develop teacher and leader supports, not just rewards and

sanctions, to improve teaching and leadership quality.

• Develop school/parent/community partnerships.

• Implement a system for collecting data on access to educational

resources. (Common Opportunity Resource Standards)

Tina Dove

Director, National Opportunity to

Learn Campaign

tnd@schottfoundation.org

Twitter: OTLCampaignDir

www.otlcampaign.org