The one thing I'd like to see the data for is the notion that the poor in America are more likely to try new things. This has not been my experience -at all-. I hadn't even heard of a Montessori school until I came to Palo Alto, CA. The idea that the poor are more likely to try things would make sense, but as an Asian-American growing up in this country, I noticed that the poor Caucasians were more likely to be set in the their ways than the rich Caucasians.
Yeah, I think the author is conflating the attitudes of parents in failing school districts with those of administrators and educators in failing school districts. The "new, experimental things" the author mentions are mostly institutional policies. The people making these policies are educators who, by nature of their profession, see education as an investment.
The one thing I'd like to see the data for is the notion that the poor in America are more likely to try new things. This has not been my experience -at all-. I hadn't even heard of a Montessori school until I came to Palo Alto, CA. The idea that the poor are more likely to try things would make sense, but as an Asian-American growing up in this country, I noticed that the poor Caucasians were more likely to be set in the their ways than the rich Caucasians.