Why American Schools Are Even More Unequal Than We Thought

Education is deeply unequal in the United States, with students in poor districts performing at levels several grades below those of children in richer areas.

Yet the problem is actually much worse than these statistics show, because schools, districts and even the federal government have been using a crude yardstick for economic hardship.

A closer look reveals that the standard measure of economic disadvantage — whether a child is eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch in school — masks the magnitude of the learning gap between the richest and poorest children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/upshot/why-american-schools-are-even-more-unequal-than-we-thought.html?_r=0