The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows little change from the achievement gaps recorded in 2009. At this rate it will take 30 years in Grade 4 Reading and 50 years in Grade 4 Mathematics for the gap to close at that level and 80 years in Grade 8 Reading and more than 30 years in Grade 8 Mathematics.

Appleseed has developed an assessment tool that helps expose inequities. Called the Resource Equity Assessment Document (READ), the tool will be distributed to community partners and school boards to spur action. When armed with data that makes the case for change, community organizations can help school boards reset the balance between impoverished and better-off students.

"Corporate reform" isn't doing anything good for public education, says Stan Karp, the director of the Secondary Reform Project for New Jersey's Education Law Center. Speaking at the Northwest Teachers for Social Justice Conference in October, Karp criticized the corporate attitude that is guiding major "reform" legislation. 

The nation is not going to improve the educational outcomes and lifetime opportunities of its neediest citizens until we turn around our lowest-performing schools. The question has been – and remains: How do we do that? Under the federal School Improvement Grant program, the answer is for schools that are targeted for the grants to adopt one of four school improvement models, ranging from a purge of school leadership to closing the school. Communities for Excellent Public Schools and a growing list of community-based organizations in low-income communities of color across the country have signed a petition urging Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to consider a different solution to turn around schools and sustain improved performance.

It’s no surprise that the voice of educational opportunity is spreading and growing louder as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Education has always been the bridge to prosperity and opportunity for Americans. And it still is: The unemployment rate for college graduates is less than half what it is for non-college graduates.

But the nation seems to have forgotten this.

No classroom factor is more important in the success of students than teachers. Unfortunately, that message often gets lost in today’s education debates. We are particularly concerned about the toll that the bashing of teachers, budget cuts, and pressure to produce test scores is taking on our nation’s teaching force.