Review of Reaching and teaching students in poverty: Strategies for erasing the opportunity gap

Most classroom teachers know that current education reform is not working. Despite a plethora of expensive policy interventions attempting to address the widening gap between low-achieving and high-achieving students over the last decade, programs like No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and Common Core are making little to no progress. Recent testing has demonstrated that, despite billions in funding for these programs, the 'achievement gap' is widening Beyond that, teachers sometimes feel like the only ones aware of how the public school system continues to let children down, especially children living in poverty. For teachers who find themselves frustrated by current reform efforts and eager to address the challenges faced by American students in poverty, Paul Gorski's Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty is an invaluable read. Educators with extensive experience teaching with culturally sustaining or social justice approaches may find the book somewhat basic, but it is an important tool for educators new to this kind of work.