Deseret News best of 2012: Care for the poor

A recent Brookings Institute study shows that the average low-income student, one who qualifies for free or reduced-price school lunches, attends a school that scores in the 42nd percentile on state tests. The average middle- or high-income student, on the other hand, attends a school whose average state test scores are in the 61st percentile.

Although policymakers and educators are trying to reduce income-based achievement gaps, new evidence suggests the spread between the rich and the poor is growing. Since the 1960s, the achievement gap between high-income and low-income students has grown by 40 percent, according to a 2011 study by Sean Reardon of Stanford University.

Read the full report here: How mixed income neighborhoods could save schools