American education: Is the glass half empty or half full?

Here are two articles in the Stanford Magazine. Two leading American researchers and authors were asked to weigh in on their opinions of American education.

They couldn't be more different.

Read the Bracey article carefully and note his comments about poverty. THIS appears to be the dirty little American secret no one will talk about openly. America leads the civilized nations in the percentages of students living in poverty. It was only the American schools with more than 75% poverty that were below international averages on test scores. The problem? We have so many of them.

Bracey's point? It's a poverty issue not an educational issue.

He points out that it is only our poorest schools that score low. Even if our schools with 25% - 49% poverty rates were considered a separate nation, they would have placed 4th in the world.