Gerald Coles: The Growing Educational Achievement Gap: Don't Think What You Might Think You Should Think - Living in Dialogue

Gerald Coles: The Growing Educational Achievement Gap: Don't Think What You Might Think You Should Think - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Gerald Coles: The Growing Educational Achievement Gap: Don't Think What You Might Think You Should Think

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by Gerald Coles

Last week the New York Times provided valuable, disturbing information by reporting recent research on thegrowing educational achievement gap between rich and poor students, which has grown substantially over the past few decades, even while the achievement gap between black and white students has narrowed. As the author of one study put it, "family income appears more determinative of educational success than race."

Yet, as is often true of the Times, what it gives with one hand, it takes with the other. For example, as the media watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has long documented, while the paper of record frequently provides factual information about events, its interpretation of the facts buttresses against drawing the "wrong" conclusions about political-economic power relationships.

A clue lies in the opening sentence of the article, which offers a summary of a presumed long-held national