How Policies Can Make a Difference
In “What ‘Counts’ as Educational Policy? Notes toward a New Paradigm”, Jean Anyon explores solutions to the policy practices that consistently undermine the educational achievement of low-income students. In her research, she specifically looks at how federal and local policies related to housing, transportation, and wages directly impact students’ abilities to perform in school. Her work suggests that in order to close the achievement gap, we need “strategies to support economic opportunity and development for urban residents” (66), which will in turn improve schools. To begin, Anyon discusses several policies that have been implemented in order to improve education in cities. One such policy funded vocational programs in industrialized areas , which has exacerbated the hidden curriculum of social classes that Anyon has written about in previous articles. Later policies attempted to supplement materials and increase access to resources, while also improving equity in disadvantag...