Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Answer Sheet - The Matthew Effect, Plinko, and the achievement gap

The Answer Sheet - The Matthew Effect, Plinko, and the achievement gap

The Matthew Effect, Plinko, and the achievement gap

This was written by Jared Joiner, a graduate of Montgomery County Public Schools who is now working towards a masters degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It refers to a Century Foundation report called “Housing Policy is School Policy," that said low-income students do beter in school when they are given a chance to live in better neighborhoods and attend schools with wealthier classmates. Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, wrote about the report on this blog in response to a piece I had posted. By Jared Joiner The argument for integration of low-income students into more affluent schools is that it offers an opportunity to level the playing field and provide high expectations to students who are not traditionally held to the same schooling standards as the white upper and middle class. However, as a Black male who attended Montgomery County Public Schools