The Achievement Gap Initiative
at Harvard University
 
 

Text Box: AGI Faculty Co-ChairsRonald F. Ferguson, AGI DirectorJohn F. Kennedy School of GovernmentHarvard UniversityRichard J. MurnaneHarvard Graduate School of EducationCharles J. OgletreeC.H. Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School Text Box: Contact: Achievement Gap InitiativeWiener Center for Social Policy79 John F. Kennedy StreetCambridge, MA Phone: 617-496-9154Fax:617-496-9053Email: agi@harvard.eduWebsite: www.agi.harvard.edu Text Box: The Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard University is a University-wide endeavor to focus academic research, public education, and innovative outreach activities on a critically important national challenge. The AGI is creating important new mechanisms for bridging between universities and schools, enabling greater communication and cooperation not only among concerned researchers, but also between researchers and education practitioners who grapple with this challenge every day in their classrooms. The Initiative also seeks to engage organizations that work directly with children and families outside school hours. The AGI includes roughly two-dozen researchers from Harvard and a network of colleagues from other institutions, who aim together to accelerate the accumulation of “usable knowledge” and to bring that knowledge to bear on raising the achievement among children of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, with a special emphasis on reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. Laboring in a multitude of roles, sharing our energies and insights, you and we together have an opportunity, indeed, a responsibility, to make a difference to many future generations of Americans. Our nation’s future can brighten even as its complexion darkens, but only if we accept this urgent responsibility to raise achievement levels among all children while also narrowing gaps. We look forward to sharing this responsibility with you.Text Box: AGI Activities and Projects: Research and Associated Publications Dissertation Grant Program Regional Forums Small Conferences on Special Topics Annual Conferences Website Newsletter Text Box: Study after study shows that on average and at all levels of schooling, achievement and attainment are significantly higher for white and Asian students than for blacks and Hispanics. There is a complex range of factors contributing to these gaps, and while many researchers have begun to understand some of them, there is an enormous amount of work still to be done. Major funding for the Achievement Gap Initiative is provided by Time Warner Inc., with additional support from the Spencer Foundation and the Murphy Innovation Fund. Core support for the Initiative is provided by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Text Box: The Work that Needs to be Done
Realizing the Nation's Potential
Text Box: “We expect that 25 years from now the use of racial preferences [in higher education] will no longer be necessary”Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003

Copyright © 2008 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Photos (top left and right) by Kevin G. Reeves for the Shaker Heights City School District