The achievement gap has been a reality that has haunted the education system for decades. Although educators have feverishly worked to close the gap, it has progressively widened over the years as resources have steadily become more scarce. While some individuals believe that the learning capacity of children in the poorest neighborhoods has the potential to be equal with that of the wealthiest communities, many have given up on such dream and accept the achievement gap for what it is; a disaster. In recent years, however, The State Education and Environment Roundtable have worked to close the achievement gap, and have been successful. Contrary to past failed attempts, the State Education and Environment Roundtable has created a program known as EIC that makes the connection between the environment and learning experience; the results have been explosive.
In classrooms where EIC has been implemented, children have performed two times better than where the program was not included. Forty schools using EIC reported that children received higher test scores, and were more proud to claim work as being their own. Standardized test results for English and Math went from failing to average in the poorest of neighborhoods thanks to the EIC program, and children who lacked the confidence necessary to pursue higher education gained the esteem necessary to be successful in school.
While some debate the factors attributing to the recent success of the environmentally based program, the primary reason for EIC’s accomplishments is its ability to provide instruction to students on a level never experienced before. In prior educational systems attempting to close the achievement gap, children were taught from textbooks that educators believed to be suited for their learning capacity. In such settings the vast majority of students grew bored with the method. EIC essentially closes the gap by providing children with an illustration of what they are learning in the classroom.