America's rich/poor education gap
The premise of Charles Murray's new book, Coming Apart, is that the upper- middle class and lower-middle class are becoming more distinct culturally as well as economically. He focuses his research primarily on white America because he contends the unhealthy gaps in our society are fueled primarily by class, not race.
A new Stanford University study offers one additional evidence about the gap being increasingly about rich and poor. Stanford researcher Sean Reardon found that the education differences between rich and poor are more acute than between races. In fact, the gap in test scores between the children of wealthier families and those of poorer families is almost twice that of the gap between Anglo and black students.
In pointing this out, I am not trying to minimize racial polarities. We regularly discuss on this blog the academic achievement differences between Anglos and minority students, especially Latinos. We will continue to spend time discussing that gap, but there is evidence that shows the divides in America are not solely because of race.
If that is the case, how do we as Americans, Texans and Dallasites respond t
A new Stanford University study offers one additional evidence about the gap being increasingly about rich and poor. Stanford researcher Sean Reardon found that the education differences between rich and poor are more acute than between races. In fact, the gap in test scores between the children of wealthier families and those of poorer families is almost twice that of the gap between Anglo and black students.
In pointing this out, I am not trying to minimize racial polarities. We regularly discuss on this blog the academic achievement differences between Anglos and minority students, especially Latinos. We will continue to spend time discussing that gap, but there is evidence that shows the divides in America are not solely because of race.
If that is the case, how do we as Americans, Texans and Dallasites respond t
Stanford study finds widening gap between rich and poor students
Analysis of standardized tests over a 50-year period shows the achievement gap between rich and poor has grown steadily.
L.A. Cicero
'It's harder to be poor in America than it used to be,' says Stanford researcher Sean Reardon.
It's long been known that the better off your family is, the better you tend to do in school.
Yet despite this knowledge – and programs to help level the playing field – the classroom achievement gap between rich and poor students has grown steadily over the past half-century, according to research by Sean Reardon, associate professor of education at Stanford.
"We had expected the relationship between family income and children's test scores to be pretty stable over time. It's a well-known fact that the two are related," Reardon said. "But the fact that the gap has grown substantially,