Hopefully one day, probably long after I am dead and gone, folks will realize what we have (or have not) done to make a better world for our children. We could start by acknowledging simple truths, but this too is a problem.
Left Ed: Race, Income and School Reformh/t Open Left
...In 1966, the Coleman Report revealed the Inconvenient Truth that the correlation of low student achievement to race and poverty is so strong that "schools generally can not overcome" the inequalities imposed on them by the society at large. [emphasis mine] Children born to families with socio-economic advantages in our society will continue to have their advantages reinforced in the schools they attend, while children born to families with more challenging circumstances will chronically lag behind.
Today, merely pointing this fact out often gets you labeled by the reformist crowd as "making excuses" for bad schools. But when one wants to understand the weather outside, it makes sense to start by recognizing how clouds make rain. Complex systems such as schools have multiple inputs, which should all be considered in policy making....