One of America’s strengths has been the great diversity of immigrants from around the world who have drive and take advantage of whatever opportunities exist to “get ahead”. We still have immigrants, and children of immigrants, following that “track” to success. However our school systems often fail this group which tends to be poor, as the poor parts of town and country are where one finds the poor performing schools.
Some, as in the past, might tend to believe that poor performance of immigrants, or poor performance in poor schools, is because those kids are just not that smart to begin with. But over and over, special schools with innovative approaches produce “surprisingly good students’ which tends to reveal that the potential is there, but isn’t being “activated”.
Yes, it’s scandalous that the US has allowed that to be our reality for low income kids. But it’s great that we know there’s a different reality possible, should we find the will and the funds and the EdTech to make it so.
's unentitled generation of college applicants - Los Angeles Times