Scrooge and School Reform
Dear Deborah,
As we enter the holiday season, our thoughts naturally turn to family celebrations, but also to those who do not share the advantages and blessings we enjoy. We all know Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol and the story of Scrooge. It's played regularly on television at this time of year, and we see how Scrooge comes to understand the plight of Tiny Tim and his family and realizes that he must strive to be kinder and more generous to others.
If I could update this tale for today's school reformers, I would begin by asking them to read a very important paper by Helen F. Ladd titled "Education and Poverty: Confronting the Evidence." A professor of economics at Duke University, Ladd is one of the nation's leading experts on issues of accountability. The paper was delivered at an academic conference last month. I recommend it to you and to all our readers. Aside from footnotes, it is only 25 pages long. (Coincidentally, Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske published an opinion piece, summarizing her paper, in The New York Times on Sunday. Read the full paper for the citations.)
I read Professor Ladd's paper and planned to summarize the key points, but when I finished, I realized that my