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Article: No excuses for poor kids not to learn.
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- June 10, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Too many educators would have us believe poor children can't learn. Or can't learn well. Or can't learn except at great price. But across the nation dozens of principals of low-income schools are proving that poverty is no excuse for failure.
Take P.S. 161 in Brooklyn. Nearly 100 percent of the children come from low-income families, yet this year's 6th-grade class had the second-highest reading scores in all of New York state. ``It's a lot of garbage that poor kids can't succeed,'' says Principal Irwin Kurz, who came to the school 13 years ago when students were testing in the bottom 25 percent among schools in Brooklyn's District 17. Today they score in the ...