History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
About poverty and school success
- 05-03-2010
-
Guest blog by Daniel Willingham/Answer Sheet
If you follow education you have doubtless heard someone express the following sentiment: We can’t educate every child until something is done about poverty. Two things about this idea bother me. First, it is insulting at the individual level, carrying the implicit message, "If you are poor, we cannot expect that you will achieve what the wealthy will." Second, it is defeatist in the aggregate. "Solve poverty, then we’ll talk about teaching poor kids," is too close to a cop-out. If you hold this attitude, I’ll admit that you’re in good company. An article in the venerable magazine The Economist, made this point in double-talk. The article included this graph. The Gini coefficient is a measure of wealth disparity--large values mean large gaps between the rich and poor. (more...)
Print this
