The Role of the Intellectual in Eliminating the Effects of Poverty

Much ink has been spilled debating the role of the intellectual. William Tierney’s article “Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Role of the Intellectual in Eliminating Poverty” in the August/September 2013 issue of Educational Researcher adds to this literature. In his article, Tierney presents recommendations to the education community on how we might help our students in poverty. While Tierney’s recommendations are compelling, he frames his essay in a way that makes it difficult to understand why traditional education reform has failed to reach its ambitious goals. In this brief response to Tierney, I encourage our community to view the effects of poverty as two-dimensional when trying to craft and conduct educational reform.