Some states leave low-income kids behind
Editor’s note: ProPublica is a non-profit investigative news service that earned Pulitzer Prizes in 2010 and 2011. This is the first national look at the percentage of high school students enrolled in high-level classes.
By Sharona Coutts and Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica
Florida is a state of stark contrasts. Travel a few miles from the opulent mansions of Miami Beach and you reach desperately poor neighborhoods. There’s the grinding poverty of sugar cane country and the growing middle class of Jacksonville. All told, half the public-school students in Florida qualify for subsidized lunches. Many are the first in their families to speak English or contemplate attending college.
In many states, those economic differences are reflected in the classroom, with students in wealthy schools
Schoales taking helm at A-Plus Denver
The A-Plus Denver citizens committee is about to get a makeover, with longtime Denver education reformer Van Schoales taking the helm of the organization later this month.
By hiring Schoales, the A-Plus board and its co-chairs, Terrance Carroll (former speaker of the state House of Representatives) and Mary Gittings Cronin (who ran the Piton Foundation for 21 years) would seem to be signaling a desire to raise the organization’s profile and sharpen its edge.
(Full disclosure: Schoales and I are old friends, and he is a frequent contributor to the Education News Coloradoopinion and commentary blog)
Cronin said the organization would continue to pursue its mission – “to harness the power of Denver’s civic leadership to build public will and advocate for reforms necessary to dramatically increase student achievement in public education in Denver.”
