Jay Mathews stokes a great discussion on how poverty affects children's performance in school. Invite educators to comment and publishing their remarks in full was highly effective and can even be viewed as an example of good civic journalism.

This interesting column provides a range of viewpoints on the challenges faced by teachers in raising the level of instruction in impoverished neighborhoods. Participants discuss different approaches to helping poor children succeed, with practical observations about what teachers can realistically accomplish with limited resources. An intelligent overview of an important topic that's too often under-reported.

an important issue with reasoned opposing views here. seems to me it illustrates well with the passion and thoughtfulness of all involved, how difficult the reality is in teaching those students who have many disadvantages for optimum learning and how much may be involved to overcome those disadvantages

Many educators respond to the question about how external realities in students' lives affect (or are allowed to affect) teachers' ideologies of their job. This is an important question. The Education biz is full of wishful thinking and slogans, along with people who really care and who base their practice on what they observe works. Unless we celebrate diversity of opinion, we reinforce a tendency towards groupthink where there's pressure on teachers to give lip-service to the current paradigm, which will probably change in a few years anyway. What does this have to do with educating kids? I hope that Paul Hill, from the University of Washington, is quoted out of context, because his "my way or the highway" approach is ... More »