Effective efforts to close the achievement gap take more than one organization. Collaboration is a key component in finding the resources, critical thinking and actionable solutions needed to overcome longstanding issues and attitudes. ETS has forged partnerships with these leading advocacy organizations who share our commitment to equality and equity in education.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education launched its new Center for Minority-Serving Institutions (CMSI) in January 2014. CMSI brings together researchers and practitioners from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU); Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU); Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI); and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI). It will serve as a central hub for research, data, best practices, emerging innovations and ideas surrounding Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). The CMSI’s goals include elevating the educational contributions of MSIs; ensuring that they are a part of national conversations; bringing awareness to the vital role MSIs play in the nation’s economic development; increasing the rigorous scholarship of MSIs; connecting MSI academic and administrative leadership to promote reform initiatives; and bolstering efforts to close educational achievement gaps among disadvantaged communities. ETS has provided both funding and research support to CMSI. This investment reflects ETS’s lifelong mission to increase enrollment, retention and graduation of minority and low-income students and improve the effectiveness of institutions serving those populations.
TQP MATH-UP Program at Lehman College’s School of Education targets college seniors studying in any major area, with interest and competency in mathematics who have a desire to teach at the elementary school level. MATH-UP participants engage in a one-year internship in a South Bronx school while taking courses toward a BA/MSED in Childhood Education with a specialization in mathematics and/or with a certification extension in bilingual Education (if qualified).
In partnership with Lehman College, the Policy Evaluation and Research Center (PERC) at ETS provides online induction support for MATH-UP graduates for their first two years of service. Support includes an invitation-only Facebook® group that provides a forum for graduates to interact and learn from each other, dialogue with education professionals who provide practical advice and resources to help with issues new teachers may face, and 90-minute online webinars held by professional development and content knowledge experts in conjunction with teachers.
The Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) is an independent, non-governmental organization with a Board of Directors drawn from diverse regions, backgrounds and fields of expertise. It seeks in its faculty, fellows and staff, people of the highest intellectual and leadership capacity from around the world and from all sectors of society, and attempts to benefit from their breadth of experience and perspective across the full range of its work.
In December of 2011, SGS and ETS convened a seminar titled Optimizing Talent: Closing Educational and Social Mobility Gaps Worldwide. The purpose of this seminar was to identify where educational and social mobility gaps exist, what effect they have, why they persist and what can be done to eliminate them. This 2011 session focused on education up to age 18. This was followed by an October 2012 session which addressed the same key issues in connection with post-secondary education and the transition to the workplace and lifelong learning.
The Education Law Center (ELC),
founded in 1973, serves as the leading voice for New Jersey's public school children and has become one of the most effective advocates for equal educational opportunity and education justice in the United States. Widely recognized for groundbreaking court rulings on behalf of at-risk students, ELC also promotes educational equity through coalition building, litigation support, policy development, communications and action-focused research in New Jersey, in other states and at the federal level.
ETS and ELC collaborate on "Addressing Achievement Gaps" symposia, which bring together leading educators, researchers and policymakers to examine the links between academic achievement and student background, and discuss ways to narrow gaps.
The Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) is a nonprofit organization, established in 1981, that expands college opportunities for low-income, first-generation students and students with disabilities throughout the United States.
COE members include more than 1,000 colleges and agencies. Through its numerous membership services, the Council works in conjunction with colleges, universities and agencies that host TRIO programs, including Talent Search, Upward Bound and Educational Opportunity Centers, to specifically help low-income students enter college and graduate. More than one million low-income and disabled students each year receive college access and retention services through member colleges and agencies.
ETS and COE collaborate on "Addressing Achievement Gaps" symposia, which bring together leading educators, researchers and policymakers to examine the links between academic achievement and student background, and discuss ways to narrow gaps. ETS is also conducting an evaluation of a college access program created by COE.
The National Urban League (NUL) is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities.
Founded in 1910 and headquartered in New York City, NUL spearheads the efforts of its local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy. Today, there are more than 100 local affiliates in 36 states and the District of Columbia, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than two million people nationwide.
ETS and NUL collaborate on "Addressing Achievement Gaps" symposia, which bring together leading educators, researchers and policymakers to examine the links between academic achievement and student background, and discuss ways to narrow gaps.