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The Unsolved Income Achievement Gap

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The Unsolved Income Achievement Gap One of the most epidemic problems that greatly affects the American public education today is the economic inequality and the resulting gap of academic achievement between rich and poor public schools. The problem started to exacerbate especially in the last fifty years as the gap is still widening and continue to be unsolved. Of course, poor students who come from financially unfortunate families are the main sect that feels its impact the most. Greg Duncan and Katherine Magnuson, a distinguished professor in education and the latter has a Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy, have showed the strong relationship and the inevitable relevance between the academic achievement of students and their families’ income. They noted that poor students from the bottom ten percent of the socioeconomic classes have been recorded to score at around more than a standard deviation lower than those from the top quintile in math and reading (47). In 1965, it was the first attempt from the government to propose, yet an imperfect, solution to the problem by issuing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Then in 1966, the Coleman Report had a major role in raising public opinion toward this issue and disclosing its real dimensions during the War on Poverty movement. Also, in order to understand the real size of this problem, we must consider all the major factors that contribute to this income achievement gap and its evolution over the

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