Education And Poverty By Helen Ladd Analysis

According to an article in the Montgomery Advertiser, “Montgomery county, out of one hundred thirty-seven schools, is ranked one hundred nineteenth in the level of support for public education”. This lack of support is a contribution to the failing schools in Montgomery especially since “some school districts now rely heavily on federal funding which targets populations of students in poverty” (al.com). So why are schools like these failing? More importantly, how can this problem be solved? Helen Ladd helps to answer these questions I her report, “Education and Poverty: Confronting the Evidence”. So, what is the reason behind these failing schools? Although, there are policies like No Child Left Behind, these “initiatives are misguided because they either deny or set to the side a basic body of evidence documenting that students from disadvantaged households on average perform less well in school than
The most logical solution would be to reduce poverty, but obviously if that could be done in a timely manner if would have been done by now. Ladd suggests, “setting the same high achievement and attainment expectations for all students and requiring all school to meet the proficiency standard”, which is exactly what NCLB currently does, but is it working? While the overall agenda is a good effort, the standardized testing part of the equation has created some bad “effects including; large numbers of failing schools, narrowing curriculums, and low morale among teachers under pressure” (Ladd). A different solution Ladd mentions actually has more to do with teachers than kids. “The challenge is to find ways to make schools serving disadvantaged children more attractive to high-quality teachers than they currently are” (Ladd). Because of low funding, schools like those in Montgomery are seen as rather undesirable for those high-quality teachers and the schools would have trouble paying for them as