Poverty and education: New data
The US Department of Education assumes that improving teaching is the way to improve the economy. With better teaching, we will have more learning (higher test scores, according to the feds), and this will improve the economy. Martin Luther King said it worked the other way around:
"We are likely to find that the problems of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished.” (Martin Luther King, 1967, Final Words of Advice).
Evidence supporting the MLK position has been published previously (e.g Zhao, 2009, Baker, 2007). Here is some new data.
Ananat et. al. reported that greater job losses resulted in lower grade 8 NAEP math scores, but results were not significant for grade 4 scores or for reading scores. The effect of job loss on math scores was substantial: Job losses to 1% of a state's population were estimated to lower math scores about 3 points, and large losses
