The Weekly Quote

Poverty is the single most reliable measure for test scores. And if you want to see evidence of that look at the latest release of the SAT scores, they include a graph, in which they show the test scores of students in relationship to the income of their family. And there is a stair step, it's very regular. At the lowest in the stair step are the children whose parents are below $25,000 a year, and then it goes up; with every increment and income, it goes up, and up and up and up, to over $200,000 a year.

The gap between the lowest end and the highest end on the SAT is 400 points, and it's correlated with the income of the family.

It really hurts academically, when children don't have food on the table. It really hurts when they don't know if they have a home to go to.  It really hurts when they have asthma, or they don't get dental care, or they never got screening for vision, when they have hearing problems, and don't know what the teacher said.

The United States, to our shame, lead the advanced nations of the world in child poverty. This is the number one problem of our time.

~ Diane Ravitch
  Reign of Error @ Quinnipiac University