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…

Suspension and expulsion rates have doubled in the past four decades. As a result, more students than ever--particularly black, Latino, American Indian, and those with disabilities--are being excluded from classroom instruction. These discipline practices rarely allow students to repair the harm they've done as a result of their transgressions or…

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…

It's undeniable that too many schools with high percentages of low-income students and students of color are low-achieving. But a few schools with these student populations stand out as successes, with academic achievement rivaling and exceeding that of their counterparts in middle-class communities. What do these schools have in common? Research…

Analyzing long-term demographic data from the Schools and Staffing Survey, Ingersoll and Merrill found a number of intriguing trends in the teaching force that they say "appear to have been little noticed by researchers, policymakers, and the public." The number of teachers, they write, is growing at a rate that far outpaces increases in student…

Examines current demographic projections in terms of five major concepts (fertility, age, region, race, and immigration) and analyzes their impact on tomorrow's schools. Beset with a declining birthrate, an aging population, and increasing numbers of poor and minority students, schools' major responsibility is to create winners and new recruits to…

Gifted students come from all socioeconomic backgrounds. A broader definition of giftedness and improved assessment methods will help remove barriers that keep poor and minority students out of programs for the gifted. (TE)

Currently 40 percent of those classified as poor are children. The social implications for the educational reform movement require that educators develop programs to confront poverty, health, and family problems. Within the next two decades the majority of students will be ethnically and linguistically diverse, poorer, and more handicapped. (MD)

To address the issue of at-risk students, school systems must reexamine the value structure of schools and determine whether it is still valid. Curriculum developers need to be aware of socioeconomic class variables and develop school environments with a balanced perspective that enhance achievement for all students. (MD)

A Maine study found that homework often disrupts family life, interferes with parents' own teachings, and punishes children in poverty for lacking computer access and/or a supportive home environment. The standards movement requires teaching in a more tightly controlled system, leaving no room for homework, an unknown variable. (Contains 13…

Research that studied 120 youth organizations in 34 different communities discovered that most disadvantaged participants gained academic life skills lasting into early adulthood. Schools can help by sharing space and facilities, establishing institutional collaborations, connecting mutual goals, supporting teacher participation, and developing…

Outlines the most current statistics and demographics on the increase in poverty since 1980 in the United States, the increase of single parent families headed by women, and the increasing number of children who live in poverty (currently 21 percent). The reasons for the increased poverty are cited as due to government neglect. (MD)