A Candid Conversation about Schools, Culture, and the Widening Opportunity Gap in America with Professor Robert D. Putnam

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-7
Author(s):  
Robert D. Putnam
Keyword(s):  
Opportunity Gap

The revitalized tutoring center

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 61-66
Author(s):  
Jeremy Koselak
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Graduation Rates ◽  
Dramatic Improvement ◽  
Opportunity Gap ◽  
Teacher Teams ◽  
Peer Tutors ◽  
School Day ◽  
Community Volunteers

One high-leverage strategy rooted in a strong research base — the revitalized tutoring center — provides a wealth of opportunity to students who may be otherwise underserved. This embedded, open-all-day tutoring center supports collaborative teacher teams by using peer tutors and community volunteers. By centralizing resources and providing supports during the school day, free to all students and targeted to some, the center helps schools close the opportunity gap without overburdening teachers, schedules, or budgets. One high school in Colorado that implemented the approach experienced a dramatic improvement in on-time graduation rates.

The right to play: Eliminating the opportunity gap in elementary school recess

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-52
Author(s):  
Rebecca A. London
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Physical Development ◽  
Opportunity Gap ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
School Recess ◽  
The Right ◽  
Enhance Student Learning

It is well documented that recess helps elementary schoolchildren learn and develop socially, emotionally, and physically. Rather than simply a break from class, recess offers benefits with the potential to enhance student learning. Yet many children, especially those in low-income and Black and Latinx communities, do not have the same access to recess at as their more affluent, White counterparts. Rebecca London calls for a closing of the recess opportunity gap by ensuring access to daily recess for all children at school, ceasing the practice of withholding recess and as punishment, and designing recess to ensure it supports students’ social, emotional, and physical development.

Time to Close the Opportunity Gap

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Brady
Keyword(s):  
Opportunity Gap

Confronting the Urban Civic Opportunity Gap

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 424-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth C. Rubin ◽  
Thea Renda Abu El-Haj ◽  
Eliot Graham ◽  
Kevin Clay
Keyword(s):  
Opportunity Gap

scholarly journals Our Sports Clubs: The Sport-for-All Dream in Crisis? Book Review of Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. By Robert Putnam. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015, 400 pp.; ISBN: 1476769893.

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-253
Author(s):  
Reinhard Haudenhuyse
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Opportunity Gap ◽  
Sports Clubs ◽  
Caring Adults ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Impact

This review investigates the potential implications of Putnam’s recent book <em>Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis</em> for the field of social sport sciences. The main themes in Putnam’s <em>Our Kids </em>are class segregation and the widening ‘opportunity’ gap between the ‘have’ and ‘have nots’ in American society. The question can and needs to be asked: what the impact of class-based segregation has been on ‘our sport clubs’? Furthermore, Putnam also discusses the importance and unequal provision of Extracurricular activities. Putnam sees such activities as contexts for developing social skills, a sense of civic engagement and even for generating upward mobility. An important advantage of such activities is, according to Putnam, the exposure to caring adults outside the family, who can often serve as valuable mentors. However, throughout the book, Putnam uses a rather judgmental and moralizing language when talking about the parents of the ‘have nots’. The lesson that sport researchers can learn from this is to be sensitive and critical to moralizing approaches and deficiency discourses regarding the inclusion <em>in</em> and <em>through</em> sport of children and youth living in poverty.

scholarly journals Exploring the 4-H Thriving Model: A Commentary Through an Equity Lens

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 171-194
Author(s):  
Nia Imani Fields
Keyword(s):  
Youth Programs ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Opportunity Gap ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Diverse Communities ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Equity And Inclusion

Many youth-serving organizations across the nation have made commitments to enhance their ability to better engage diverse communities with equity and inclusion at the fore. For many youth programs, there is a need to better align youth, adult leaders, and curriculum with the diverse needs and social conditions of the country. In their article, Professors Arnold and Gagnon describe the most recent iteration of a theory of change for 4-H, a national youth-serving organization that offers a variety of PYD programs. 4‑H recognizes the critical need to reach the most marginalized communities, yet the opportunity gap that exists in its programming cannot be fully addressed if an equity lens is not applied to the systematic analysis and delivery of programs. In this commentary, I critique the 4-H Thriving Model through an equity lens and, in doing so, explain the key terms and theories necessary for stakeholders to understand in order to promote equity in the youth sector.

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