Closing the Poverty Gap: The Way Forward for Education Reform is the title of guest column in Ed Week by Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville.

After citing some pretty irrefutable data documenting the role of poverty in student achievement, here are some excerpts from what he writes:

Some want to make the absurd argument that the reason low-income youngsters do poorly is that, mysteriously, all the incompetency in our education systems has coincidentally aggregated around low income students. In this view, all we need to do is scrub the system of incompetency and all will be well. An equally absurd variant on this theme is that poor performance in low-income districts is a function of, again coincidental, misalignment between state standards and local curriculum. Get these in line and all will be fine say the ideologues. Others want to banish any discussion of socio-economic status (SES) and educational performance for fear that it suggests that SES is destiny. It does not. We all know of notable individual exceptions to this rule, but they are exceptions. The averages tell the story….

It is now blatantly apparent to me and other education activists, ranging form Geoffrey Canada to Richard Rothstein to Linda Darling-Hammond, that the strategy of instructional improvement will not, on average, enable us to overcome the barriers to student learning posed by the conditions of poverty.

As others have argued, we need “a broader, bolder” approach, one that meets every child where he or she is and gives to each one the quality and quantity of support and instruction needed to attain the standards. Those of us who have the privileges of affluence know how to do this at scale with our children. We wrap services and supports around these children from the pre-natal period through their twenties. We know how to do it, but do we have the will to do it for “other people’s children”? And do we know how to institutionalize the necessary services and supports that are best provided through families?

I’d strongly encourage you to read the entire column.

I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher & Outside Factors Have On Student Achievement.

Here are two new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation:

The letter from assessment experts the N.Y. Regents ignored is from The Washington Post.

On False Dichotomies and Warped Reformy Logic is from School Finance 101.

Behind Grass-Roots School Advocacy, Bill Gates is the headline of a newspaper article in the New York Times today. It’s definitely worth a read.

I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The Role Of Private Foundations In Education Policy.

Five myths about America’s schools is an excellent Washington Post column by Post reporter Paul Farhi.

I’m adding it to The Best Articles Providing An “Overall” Perspective On Education Policy.