Students in poverty need both academic and social supports. Former New York City Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew and scholar Pedro Noguera argue that students in poverty need both intensive academic and social supports. They maintain that U.S. education policy, with its focus on academic accountability, has generally failed to grasp this dual…

Understanding how and why rising racial and economic segregation impacts achievement gaps is critical to closing them. Analyzing data from every school district in the U.S., researchers sean reardon, Erin Fahle, Heewon Jang, and Ericka Weathers evaluate how growing racial segregation interacts with unequal economic opportunities and contributes to…

In recent years, educators have used the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) model to describe the ideal trajectory of teachers as learners with new technology. The very same general pattern can be found in Judith Sandholtz's research from the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow project in the 1980s and the five-phase model…

Low-income students are now a majority in U.S. public schools. Steve Suitts, formerly of the Southern Education Foundation, reviews statistics showing that the percentage of students in K-12 schools coming from low-income families has increased to 52 percent. Meanwhile, state funding for K-12 schools has increased much more modestly, so that…

In this article, Bryan Goodwin reflects on a Johns Hopkins University study from 1966 that at that time sent shock waves across America. The report's sober conclusion was that: "Schools provide no opportunity at all" to bring impoverished and minority students up to the starting line. Rather, schools allow them to "fall farther…

We know that students cannot learn if they are not in school, and that students with economic challenges miss school more frequently than other students. What obstacles create this attendance gap, and how can school districts provide the supports to improve attendance for these students? The authors of this article, who work with the Texas…

The video "Wealth Inequality in America" sets forth a compelling animated chart depicting three ideas: (1) how Americans think wealth is distributed in the United States;(2) how they believe wealth ideally should be distributed; and (3) how the estimated $54 trillion of U.S. wealth is really divided. The hard-to-miss conclusion of the…

From the nefarious achievement gaps, to the racial isolation in increasingly segregated schools; from the digital divide that results in kids not having access to computers, to the poverty gulf that results in kids not having homes; from boys' reading difficulties and girls' problems with math, to the disparities among rural, suburban, and urban…

The author contends that education is implicated in the perpetuation of social inequity if it continues to present itself as the institution through which equality of opportunity is realized. Educators will make a step toward equity when they recognize that students do not have equal opportunity. (MD)

Whatever its causes, racial isolation is social dynamite. Problems and destiny of America and American education cannot be separated from fate of American cities, which daily grow poorer, more violent, less socially cohesive, and more isolated. Problems cannot be addressed without taking racism into account. Schools can help students understand…

Academic performance differences among children from varied socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds are unacceptably large. Instead of waiting for U.S. society to solve its inequity problems, educators must prepare all children to achieve their full potential. Educators should think of all children as promising, use early-intervention strategies, and…

More than 20 years ago, A Nation At Risk warned that "a rising tide of mediocrity" threatened the U.S. education system and that the United States would be unable to effectively compete with other economies because of a scarcity of graduates in science and technology. In 2001, No Child Left Behind reiterated that message, pushing through…

Landsman explores the qualities that enable teachers to effectively work with students who are homeless or live in extreme poverty. The most effective strategy seems to be maintaining high expectations. Successful teachers "cut deals" with students, finding ways to connect school work to students' life concerns and helping them successfully to…

To serve poor youngsters and their families, South Bay Union School District developed its own preschool campus, the VIP (Very Important Preschoolers) Village. The program depends on strong administrative support, planned staff development, parent involvement, parent education programs, community partnerships, curriculum/assessment alignment, and…

"Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools" describes the contrasts between rich and poor schools located within a few miles of each other. The author, Jonathan Kozol, claims that contrasts are due to inequitable funding; he would abolish the property tax and replace it with equitable funding for every child deriving from a…