The Broader Bolder Approach to Education is a national campaign that acknowledges the impact of social and economic disadvantage on schools and students and proposes evidence-based policies to improve schools and remedy conditions that limit many children’s readiness to learn.
Read the BBA Mission Statement and Accountability Statement to learn more. Use the BBA short video and infographic to spread the word. Access the new BBA report, Market-Oriented Reforms' Rhetoric Trumps Reality, and executive summary, here.
The BBA Bibliography provides synopses of seminal research works that demonstrate how living in poverty impedes educational attainment and the efficacy of a broader, bolder approach to education.
“ For nearly half a century, the association of social and economic disadvantage with a student achievement gap has been well known to economists, sociologists, and educators. Most, however, have avoided the obvious implication of this understanding – raising the achievement of lower-class children requires amelioration of the social and economic conditions of their lives, not just school reform.
From Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap by Richard Rothstein
View the full BBA Bibliography
The Obama administration deserves praise for its recent strong support for greater investments in early childhood education. With reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind in its current incarnation) stalled in Congress, and the many valid concerns about narrow test-based initiatives that do nothing to address the challenges of children from disadvantaged families, this new direction is a welcome change. In addition, it has the potential be a winner because it should gain the support of both Republicans and Democrats.
In addition to the high-profile original signatories, many of whom helped to draft BBA's mission statement, hundreds of people from across the country who agree with BBA’s mission continue to sign on. Join them!