Several family members are teachers. According to them only 1 in 10 parents are engaged in helping their kids with school work.
5, 10-year old African-American and very bright girls were constantly interupted by discipline problems last year
So, another place to start with your latest reform is to separate the bright kids from the discipline problems
14 years ago when my son was in Kindergarten, I often volunteered and even subbed in the classroom. I can tell you honestly that even in the better schools, the poorer students most often had parents who were not even helping their 5 years olds with schoolwork. My son had an “old fashioned” teacher who taught the way she had for 25 years before that. Almost every child in that classroom was reading before Christmas and seven were reading on a third grade level by the end of the year. Well, except for the kids I mentioned before, who came to school dirty, played all day and had no help at home. It starts early and never changes for those kids and it can sound however someone wants it to sound but it was the poor kids - race didn’t matter - white and hispanic in this particular case.