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Flypaper

Jay on high-achievers

Coby Loup
7.14.2008

Columnist Jay Mathews writes in today's Washington Post about Fordham's latest report, High-Achieving Students in the Era of No Child Left Behind.

Here's a teaser:

My theory is that we have unconsciously taken our concern about the income gap--a lively issue in the last several years--and adopted the same vocabulary when we worry about how our children are doing in school, even though making money and learning to read, write and do math are different enterprises. I can understand distaste for people who build 50-room mansions with gold bathroom fixtures. But can anyone learn too much? Wisdom tends to help everyone who comes in contact with it. Ski chalets in Aspen are less useful to those of us who can't afford them.

Tags: Jay Mathews

Coby is a policy analyst for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He also maintains the Institute's website. By a happy turn of events, Coby landed at Fordham via the Institute for Humane Studies, where he was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in political science.A Colorado native, Coby enjoys hiking and running outdoors. He also enjoys the indoors--especially bookstores,…

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