Gardner, W. (2012, February 15). Income More Important Than Race in Achievement Gap.

Why it should be front-page news that income plays a more important role than race in the academic achievement gap is beyond me (“Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say,” The New York Times, Feb. 10). Studies have consistently shown that poverty is the single most important out-of-school factor in predicting student performance. In 2010, for example, The Century Foundation found that socioeconomic obstacles are seven times as large as those associated with race in performance on the SAT (Rewarding Strivers, Century Foundation Press).