The Achievement Gap? Where Should Our Nation's Focus Be -- On the Causes or the Effects?

Many of the problems directly associated with poverty make significant contributions to the so-called "Achievement Gap," which does exist. However, achievement differences will not be reduced or eliminated by the simplistic solutions being currently advocated -- more high-stakes testing, punishing each teacher for her students’ test performances, firing the principal, linking teachers' salaries to test results, etc. -- rather than attempting to address the well known economic factors that have been widely acknowledged for their impact on learning and development, as well as for skewing standardized test results. (See ScienceMaster for full article)

What we find most amazing is that the “achievement gap” isn’t much wider!