In plain sight

the long version

Describes what happens when a state education department partners with city school districts in an attempt to close the achievement gap between poor, minority city students and their counterparts in the predominantly white and more affluent suburban districts. It is set in New Jersey, but the lessons apply in any American city that has concentrations of poor children in failing school districts. A preliminary look at the results of New Jersey's expensive efforts resulting from the landmark New Jersey Supreme Court case Abbott v. Burke suggests an unsurprising conclusion : when additional funds are concentrated on supporting and enhancing teachers efforts to assess the needs of their students and tailor their instruction to those needs, dramatically better results are possible. If no coherent plan for improved classroom instruction is implemented, more money makes no difference, and can, instead, produce confusion and declining performance. From publisher description.