Newspaper Article

Proximity doesn't fix habits that undercut school success

Joanne Jacobs Reason Foundation

2007

Overview

In my book, \"Our School,\" I describe the struggles and triumphs of a charter high school in San Jose, Calif., that recruits 'D' and 'F' students, works their butts off and sends all graduates to college. Downtown College Prep succeeds because it targets instruction to struggling students who come from low-income and working-class families; most are the children of poorly educated Mexican immigrant parents. Mixing in middle-class whites would dilute the focus. That's been tried too with no effect on academic achievement. The journal Education Next reports on a study of families who moved out of public housing projects and into better neighborhoods in Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York: \"A randomized evaluation of the 'Moving to Opportunity' program -- a federal housing program piloted in five major U.S. cities that sought to relocate poor families by providing housing vouchers -- shows that, contrary to expectations, moving families out of high-poverty neighborhoods has no overall positive impact on children's learning.\"

• Publisher: Deseret Digital Media