Closing the Achievement Gap is the Central Area Education Linkages’ collaborative partnership with the Kettering Foundation.  The partnership is focused on coordinating community forums that concentrates on eliminating the educational disparities faced by children of color. A diverse group of community members engage in key discussion components, which include raising expectations and demanding accountability; closing the spending gap; and addressing root causes.

Chapters in the Central Area hosted multiple forums in their communities, and directed these efforts into targeted local task forces and commissions, which successfully influenced changes at the local level. Additional meetings, offering more targeted training for educators engaged in the classrooms with young people, are being developed. Since statistical data indicates the earlier we engage our children in the educational process through mastery of age appropriate skills and building strong vocabularies, the higher the likelihood of academic success. Thus, the Central Area Educational Linkages has expanded its vision to include a focus on early childhood education.

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