It is wrongheaded and unproductive to judge schools by the family backgrounds of the students, but we all do it.
Whenever I interview people around the country about their local schools, they tend to praise those where most of the students are affluent and criticize those where most are poor. Having a large number of black or Hispanic students will also hurt a school's reputation, but in most cases, such schools also have a majority of children whose parents never went to college and don't make much money. It is class, not race, that makes the big difference.
Children from low-income families have a disadvantage. On average, they don't get the same opportunities to learn in their early years that affluent children do. It is difficult to catch up when you start far behind. That reduces the average test scores of the schools they attend.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if our state legislature and governor would have some kind of epiphany similar to Matthews' comments that would lead them to solve Michigan's school funding inequities?
Just dreaming.
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Just moved to an affluent community because I place a high value on education. I was saddened to find out that it is not teacher quality. Half of the kids on my street were pressured to get tutors if they wanted their kids to keep up. Perhaps the problem in poor communities can't afford a tutor. I think they should survey parents attending pub schools to ask if they have used tutors or outside services like sylvan learning etc. Our local school received a grant that gave teachers a bonus for high test scores. My thought was maybe they should give that money to the parents who hired tutors to help their kids.
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