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Intellections Discussion

Closing the Achievement Gap in Education
Why haven't we closed the achievement gap?

Responses

We have focused on throwing money at the problem which only results in gains for the politicians. If there is to be a real change and we know the best predictor of student success is parental interest then we need to find a method of encouraging parental involvement in education. Since we love throwing money at problems, why not throw it at the parents if their kids do well?

Another aspect of the problem is skilled teachers with experience don't want to work with disadvantaged youth and their unions seniority keeps them out of the schools that need them the most. Fix this by financial incentives, because otherwise no sane teacher is going to want to work under less than idal conditions.

Giving $ to the parents of children already doing well will only exasperated the problem

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