Finding the political will to close the excellence gap

When it comes to educating our best and brightest young minds – and preparing them to compete in a world that consistently demands highly educated workers – America is awash in a sea of untapped potential.

And when it comes to identifying and educating our best and brightest low-income and minority students, that potential falls even further.

{mosads}Yet in this presidential election, hardly a word has been uttered about two issues that are critical to preparing students for successful careers and advancing America’s competitiveness on the global stage: the excellence gap and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. America’s presidential candidates must prioritize STEM education and address the excellence gap, or the gap between lower- and higher-income students’ academic performance levels – and our elected officials must come together to advance STEM education and find a solution to closing the excellence gap.

Consider the problem: According to a recent National Governors Association report, America Works: Education and Training for Tomorrow’s Jobs, U.S. students ranked 20th, 23rd and 30th in reading, science and math globally. Those numbers have been waning at precisely the worst time – as the American job market is increasingly requiring its workers to have advanced math and science skills.

Compounding the problem is the fact that we are doing precious little to identify promising low-income students of all races. The idea is not to guarantee their success, but ensure that those who have the knowledge and will to succeed and work hard have as much access to the best schools and curricula as their higher-income counterparts.

That means identifying promising STEM students early and giving them the support that they need to compete. Unfortunately, U.S. college admissions are heavily skewed toward the children of families with greater financial means because we fail to identify the low-income students early. Nearly three-quarters of students at America’s most selective colleges and universities are from households in the top quarter of the income bracket, according to a recent Jack Kent Cooke Foundation report. At the same time, at 91 of the most competitive colleges and universities, only three percent of students come from families in the bottom quarter of the income scale.

To raise awareness about these issues, I’ll be speaking on a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus’s Annual Legislative Conference on Friday to discuss what we can do to narrow the excellence gap, as well as increase the number of well-prepared STEM high school students. There, I will be representing the Coalition of Leaders for Advanced Student Success, also known as CLASS Coalition. Established in 2015, as president and co-founder of CLASS Coalition, I have partnered with principals and leaders from 100 of the top high-performing public schools in the nation to find and improve ways to close the excellence gap, identify STEM students early and develop and enhance a school-to-workforce pipeline.

Our members are committed to finding solutions and we have identified key challenges faced by lower-income households. Among our efforts, we are implementing policies to help academic leaders better identify low-income, high-achieving students; supplementing costs for AP testing, entrance exams and college application fees; ensuring free online access to SAT and ACT prep courses; providing access to free tutoring and supplemental academic programs; and identifying talented middle school students to prepare them for challenging coursework they will face in high school.

We are also working on two important initiatives that we plan to implement this fall. The first is a virtual platform that will create a student-to-workforce pipeline by fostering collaboration between business leaders and our member schools. The platform will connect businesses to some of the nation’s highest achieving schools and students – allowing students to pursue internship opportunities and learn about job skills and requirements, and enabling businesses to seek out ideal job candidates and provide valuable career advice. The second initiative is a webinar series in which CLASS principals and other leaders can discuss best practices and lessons learned as well as ways to close the excellence gap.

We cannot do it alone and, as our young organization continues to grow, we plan to establish a corporate advisory board that will play an active role in CLASS’s annual conference, networking, sponsorships, outreach efforts and more. To complement our ties with the private sector, we look to – and would welcome collaboration with – the next Administration and elected officials to lead the way in finding solutions to narrow the excellence gap and prioritize STEM education. And we encourage our presidential candidates to do the same and address this pressing problem on the campaign trail.

Many believe the federal government does not have a strong role to play in education, but we disagree. The benefits of helping students from all income levels and preparing them for STEM-related careers are too great for U.S. policymakers and officials to overlook.

Crystal Bonds is the principal of the High School for Math, Science and Engineering (HSMSE) at the City College of New York and the president of CLASS Coalition.

The views expressed by authors are their own and not the views of The Hill.