This paper shows not only that income inequality in society is a significant contributing factor to the achievement gap. "The achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is roughly 30 to 40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born twenty-five years earlier. This may become a worsening spiral. "At the same time that family income has become more predictive of children's academic achievement, so have educational attainment and cognitive skills become more predictive of adults' earnings. The combination of these trends creates a feedback mechanism that may decrease intergenerational mobility." Redressing income inequality is an educational imperative, one that can't be papered over simply by firing teachers. Nor is it one that online learning - even in the form of free and open learning - can address all by itself. Motivation matters, and if you can't get ahead no matter what you do, you find other things to do with your life.
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