AFTER READING the article about the achievement gap in MCAS scores between schools serving low-income families and those serving wealthier communities, I am amazed at the myopia of our society and its educational leadership (“MCAS scores appear stuck in stubborn income gap,’’ Page A1, Sept. 25). It is absolutely absurd for us to talk once again about the lack of effectiveness of one more year of school reform tactics. Let us face the simple fact that income is tied to every indicator of the health and future of a community and its children. We could just as easily talk about the gap between low-income and middle- and high-income communities in literacy, infant mortality rates, obesity, diabetes, asthma, hypertension, or depression. Or the gaps in employment, incarceration, food security, stable housing, or substance use.
Poverty is cause of achievement gap
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | MCAS INEQUALITY
Poverty is the inescapable cause, through all of these interrelated socioeconomic factors, of the disproportionately high rates of underperformance in schools. Reforming the schools, by closing their doors, firing the faculty, creating an alternative school, or even pouring millions of more dollars into them, just will not work. Ever.
Joseph Rukeyser
Rockport
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