Achievement Gaps
Editor’s Note
Articles on this page examine ways that educators are addressing well-known, persistent achievement gaps between subgroups of students in the U.S. by race, ethnicity and socio-economic status. Included in this topic are articles about research into the underlying causes of achievement gaps and ways that differences in background and culture can affect student performance in school.
The Poverty Gap
Schools grapple with a growing population of poor children
David Kopperud was acting principal at a West Sacramento, Calif., elementary school when one of his first-graders stopped showing up. The child was so chronically absent that Kopperud went to see the child’s mother. What he learned has stayed with him since. Continue
Scenes from the School Turnaround Movement
Passion, frustration, mid-course corrections mark rapid reforms
Last fall, when I set out to write a journalistic book about schools going from bad to great (and fast), the plan was to report on what was working in school turnaround. But it quickly became obvious that such information did not exist in definitive form. Instead, I stepped into a process that—while energetic and intense—is still being figured out. Continue
College and Career Readiness
A Matter of One Goal or Two?
The Common Core State Standards released this month are meant to make all students “college or career ready” by the end of high school. But as they try to determine the best way to prepare students to meet this goal, policy makers and researchers are struggling with the question of overlap: Just how similar are the skills needed to succeed in college and the skills needed to succeed in a career that does not require a college degree? And can the two sets of skills be taught together? Continue
