Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Quota system would dilute school's quality

I really think that parental involvement in the home with school is critical to children moving ahead (or falling behind) in the classroom.
We live in an upper income area but 30% of the kids are on the free/reduced lunch program. My husband and I volunteered once a week in my son's third grade class last year, at a public school. IMHO, 1/3 of his class was below the third grade level. It correlated highly with income- the teacher accidentally sent an email out to all of the parents about a field trip and inadvertently revealed who was on the free lunch program (it was just about all of the kids who were below grade level).
The teacher would always give me a few of those kids to work with on my volunteer days. I never thought they had a learning disability, etc. I felt like, gee, you need someone to buy Handwriting Without Tears and just have you work on your handwriting at home. Or spelling. Or have you read out loud to me for 30 minutes a night.
I'm not a teacher, so this is just my "I"m a mom" insight. That isn't to say, obviously, that poor nutrition or learning disabilities or whatever doesn't also play a huge role in the achievement gap.