Harold Levy Explains the Excellence Gap and Joins Brightest Kids Panel

Posted October 27, 2015 | By Cooke Foundation Staff

Failing Our Brightest Kids Panelists (from left to right): Chester E. Finn, Ed.D., co-author of Failing Our Brightest Kids; Brandon Wright, co-author, Failing Our Brightest Kids; Brother Brian Carty, President and Founder, De La Salle Academy; Harold O. Levy, Executive Director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation; and Jack R. Smith, Ph.D., Interim State Superintendent of Schools, Maryland Public Schools. Photo via the Hoover Institution on Twitter.

Yesterday, the Cooke Foundation’s executive director and other education leaders gathered at two separate events in Washington, D.C., to draw attention to the persistence of the Excellence Gap in the nation’s schools. In her coverage of a morning session, Lauren Camera of U.S. News & World Report describes how low-income, high-achieving students are largely overlooked by public policy:

“Under federal law, states and school districts must track the educational progress, or lack thereof, of poor students, minorities and those still learning English. And they’re continually working to ensure those students don’t fall behind, or if they do, that there’s a plan in place to catch them up.

But what about the country’s highest-achieving students? Who’s responsible for them? And what about disadvantaged gifted students who often lack support systems and depend entirely on public schools?”

Continue reading her article at U.S. News & World Report:

Gifted Yet Disadvantaged Kids May Be Getting Short Shrift

Later in the evening, the Hoover Institution hosted a panel of education leaders who discussed strategies for closing the Excellence Gap. A video of the Failing Our Brightest Kids: The Global Challenge Of Educating High-Ability Students panel from the Hoover Institution is available to view below:

Learn more about the Excellence Gap: