The poverty gap: There are always exceptions, but they make bad education policy
This week I wrote about a discussion on school reform between President Obama and NBC's Matt Lauer that walked right up to the issue of the effects of poverty on student achievement but then veered away.
Calling the issue "the elephant" that the two ignored, I cited statistics and studies showing the strong connection between poverty and education and noted that today’s crop of education reformers like to dismiss the issue and say that teachers use it an excuse when their students consistently have low standardized test scores.
Some readers pointed out that some high-poverty schools are