The opportunity equation

"Citizen Schools is a fresh and personal look at education and the increasingly unequal access to opportunity in America. The book gets beyond the tired debate about charter schools and unions and tests to look at what is really driving the growing opportunity gap - what Schwarz calls a chasm - between upper and lower income children. Schwarz charts the supports and experiences that marked his own childhood and that of his children and shares the story of Citizen Schools, the organization he built, and the thousands of children it serves who were born with little money and few connections but by virtue of repeated positive experiences with professionally successful adults are now catapulting their way into good colleges and good careers. While differences in school and teacher quality contribute to growing opportunity and achievement gaps, Schwarz shares stories and convincing data that demonstrate most of the gap comes from extra learning opportunities offered outside of school. Schwarz shares heartwarming as well as tragic stories and cutting edge research, describing a world in which the real driver of achievement gaps has little to do with tests or schools or even teachers, but instead has everything to do with social networks and chances to "experience success with successful people." "--