Improve education to eliminate poverty OR eliminate poverty to improve education?
My comment on "Duncan Outlines 'Equity' Agenda," Ed Week blog by Mark Walsh (School Law).
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2010/07/duncan_outlines_civil_rights_a.html
The Duncan formula is this: Improve education with rigorous standards and testing, and this will take care of poverty.
But high levels of poverty make educational achievement impossible: The impact of hunger, toxic environments, lack of health care and lack of reading material on school achievement is devastating.
When studies control for poverty, American children do very well on international tests, indicating that there is nothing seriously wrong with our educational system. Our scores are low only because we have so many children living in poverty, and the highest of all industrialized countries (22.5%, compared to Sweden's 2.5%).
Improving education is not the path to eliminating poverty. Eliminating poverty is the path to better school
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2010/07/duncan_outlines_civil_rights_a.html
The Duncan formula is this: Improve education with rigorous standards and testing, and this will take care of poverty.
But high levels of poverty make educational achievement impossible: The impact of hunger, toxic environments, lack of health care and lack of reading material on school achievement is devastating.
When studies control for poverty, American children do very well on international tests, indicating that there is nothing seriously wrong with our educational system. Our scores are low only because we have so many children living in poverty, and the highest of all industrialized countries (22.5%, compared to Sweden's 2.5%).
Improving education is not the path to eliminating poverty. Eliminating poverty is the path to better school
