Does Household Income Impact Test Scores?

Today's NCAE daily brief quoted some research from NC Policy Watch....the numbers are sobering, especially for those who want us to believe it's a fairly simple task to overcome the burdens of poverty in the class room:

Total number of Honor Schools of Excellence, the highest designation in the Department of Public Instruction's end-of-grade testing program, in 2008-2009 results = 121

Honor Schools with less than 20 percent of students eligible for free or reduced lunch = 65

Total number of current NC "Honor" Schools where the free & reduced lunch population is 80% or higher = ZERO

Total number of number of low-performing schools, the lowest designation in the testing program = 75

Number of those low-performing schools with at least 60 percent poor students = 66

Number of those low-performing schools with less than twenty percent free or reduced lunch students = ZERO