Data on Schools, School Districts,

On June 2-3, 2003 the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University sponsored a policy forum in Washington, D.C. The forum was focused on discussions of how to break the link between poverty and achievement in our schools. It brought together many prominent mathematicians, scientists, mathematics and science educators, and educational policy analysts. A description of the forum and the agenda follow.

Why Content Matters: Breaking the Link between Poverty and Achievement

If all children are going to learn at high levels, if the US is to succeed in narrowing and erasing the achievement gap between student groups, if all students are to become proficient, our nation needs to extend the policy dialogue to include what has been until now the "missing link" - that is, the link between the academic content that children study and their achievement.

Recent analyses of international and national data highlight the central role that subject matter content plays in what children learn. The issues illuminated by these results are complex, subtle - and vitally important to policymakers charged with deciding the course of education policy in America. The subject matter content students study in schools is intended to reflect the more formal bodies of knowledge of their parent academic disciplines such as mathematics, biology and history. This raises critical questions that need to be examined. How should the structure of the discipline be reflected in: what all students study and learn? the way we test students? the design of textbooks? the subject matter preparation of teachers? What role should methods of inquiry inherent in the discipline play in these same issues? The answers to these and other related questions are complex and demand the participation of academics and deserve serious deliberation by the policy community.

This Education Policy Forum is intended to address these and other issues that arise from the intersection of academic disciplines, school subjects, and education policy. Experts from several disciplines and education policy will participate in a forum to discuss subject matter content as it is related to K-12 schooling focusing on issues pertaining to curriculum content standards for students, state assessment curriculum content, teacher preparation, and professional development. Attendees will have an opportunity to join the discussion and interact with participants at each session.