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 successful with needy children without changing the conditions of their life outside school.
How Zuckerberg should have spent $100 million
My guest is Robert Pondiscio, director of communications at .the Core Knowledge Foundation who launched the Core Knowledge Blog. This post first appeared there. By Robert Pondiscio When Charles Lindbergh flew to Paris in 1927, he was aiming for more than glory. His flight netted him the $25,000 Orteig Prize, a reward offered a decade earlier by a wealthy New Yorker to the first aviator to to fly from New York to Paris. Such prizes were a common means of spurring achievement in the early days of aviation. More recently, the $10 million Ansari X Prize was offered for the first non-government group to launch a reusable manned spacecraft twice in two weeks. Big prizes get attention, capture the imagination, and create a multiplier effect as competitors battle it out for the money. The team that won the Ansari X prize spent $25 million of Paul Allen’s money in pursuit