At a time when prospects for attaining the American dream feel to many like they’re slipping away, education remains key to ensuring that children realize their full potential, and it still provides for many a pathway out of poverty and into the middle class.
Recent research by Harvard economist Raj Chetty, director of Opportunity Insights, and others have shown that improving school quality alone isn’t enough to boost the future economic trajectory of a child from a low-income family. To make a real difference, those efforts must also address the circumstances and conditions in students’ lives outside of school that undermine their ability to succeed academically.
That’s no easy task, but there are some very promising solutions happening in cities and towns across the country that deserve far more attention, said Rob Watson, executive director of the EdRedesign Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Education, which conducts research and training that focuses on ways to improve educational achievement beyond the classroom.
“Universities are in the business of generating knowledge, but where we often fall short is ensuring that knowledge gets to people who are in positions to do something with the good research and innovation that happens here or that we study from across the country and around the world,” he said.
