What Are “Middle Class Schools”?
An organization called “The Third Way” released a report last week, in which they present descriptive data on what they call “middle class schools.” The primary conclusion of their analysis is that “middle class schools” aren’t “making the grade,” and that they are “falling short on their most basic 21st century mission: To prepare kids to get a college degree.” They also argue that “middle class schools” are largely ignored in our debate and policymaking, and we need a “second phase of school reform” in order to address this deficit.
The Wall Street Journal swallowed the report whole, running a story presenting Third Way’s findings under the headline “Middle class schools fail to make the grade.”
To be clear, I think that our education policy debates do focus on lower-income schools to a degree that sometimes ignores those closer to the middle of the distribution. So, it’s definitely worthwhile to take a look at