Children & Families

Beyond the Classroom: As schools search for ways to reduce the achievement gap between white, middle-class children and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged or minority groups, a new paper argues that it might be more cost-effective to improve the conditions children live in than to focus just on finding educational solutions.

In "Finance Fungibility," Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, notes that student achievement is influenced by such factors as families, peers, neighborhoods, and culture.

Targeting $24 billion—the amount that he estimates will be added to public school spending over the next five years—to areas such as children's health, housing, nutrition, and family income might produce academic gains equal to those generated by the greater...