The Children Youth and Family Consortium (CYFC) began last year to organize a major portion of its work around theme areas as a way to address children, youth and family issues in greater depth. The first theme during the 2005-06 academic year was “Policy From A Family Perspective.” Several issues of Connections and a number of events focused on topics related to family policy.
In 2006, CYFC began a new three-year focus on the topic of “Educational Disparities,” more commonly known as the achievement gap – a critical issue in Minnesota, which has one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation.
CYFC considers educational disparities to be the differences in educational opportunities and outcomes among various groups of people, often defined by race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or geography. Much of the work on the achievement gap has focused primarily on student differences in outcomes or achievement; CYFC’s work will also look at the disparities in opportunities.
As is the practice in all of its work, CYFC will address educational disparities from ecological and development perspectives.
The goal of CYFC’s work related to Educational Disparities is to move beyond talking about it and put into action some potential tools to reduce the gap in Minnesota. CYFC will be consulting and working with partners from many parts of the University and the community to make this happen. We invite you to check out our section on educational disparities often.
