Chris Lehman has written an excellent post pulling together solid data about the “reformers'” solutions and the issue that refuse to address: poverty.
What is the problem in U.S. education? What is the cause of low test scores? Is it bad teachers, as the reformers claim?
Or is it poverty, where the U.S. leads the advanced nations of the world?
Can school reform cure poverty? Has it?
If you don’t address the causes, you will never solve the problem of low academic performance.
Nice job, Chris.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Early childhood programs work.Note the difference between how George Kaiser spends money in Tulsa Ok. ,and other rich spend their money.
Search george kaiser early childhood.
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Early childhood programs worked well enough in MA that Romney was happy to pretend he was responsible for the results years later.
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Diane, thanks for linking to this article. Imagine if we could turn back the clock and replace NCLB and Race to the Top with programs that would have provided real, tangible support and resources for local communities to have strengthened their schools and communities. Imagine if we took all of the testing money, political ad money, charter school money, and have actually improved conditions in areas of poverty. Imagine.
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Where to begin? Poverty is high on the list for sure as it’s effects are deep and powerful. If I had to select one problem or issue it might be the prevailing notion in the media and national discussion that education, and educators can or should solve all the problems presented at the school house door. As someone who has generally worked into the upper elementary grades I have seen many students come into 4th or 5th grade reading independently at a 2nd grade level. Research suggests that it’s impossible to make up that gap without support and yet time and time again we’re expected to do just that.
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Early childhood programs did work well. They used to provide food, socialization, physical and emotional development and reading readiness — all aimed at developmentally appropriate milestones. Even with a head-start boost, academic achievement/improvement in relation to peers generally levels off by grade five. I suspect that a focus on testing as a result rather than a diagnostic tool in K and Pre-K will exacerbate the “achievement gap.” Once the new “Jim Crow” education reform agenda achieves its goal of separating the rich from the poor (the 47%) there will likely be laws passed to make poverty against the law… and the “company store” https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/11-9
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Diane: Thanks for leading me to this data. It will prove useful in writing future postings and talking with conservative who buy the “failed American schools” rhetoric.
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The problem with American public education? Quite simple, educational standards and standardized testing along with the sorting and separating that grades and grading practices accomplish. That and all the edudeformer money of the privatizers.
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Please share this song, written by an Indiana teacher, about poverty and privatization in education…
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