If you ain't talking about the teacher in the classroom, I ain't listening. Teacher quality matters. Too many in the profession are quick to awfulize students in poverty to rationalize poor results. Better teaching inspires students and gets better results. Better teaching engages students and keeps them in classrooms, rather than the streets. Better teaching is the one thing we never really talk about. Better teaching is the only mechanism we have left.
What are some ways to significantly improve teaching in these communities? The teaching doesn't happen in a vacuum and we need a plan to counteract the systemic forces at work that maintain the status quo.