Since improving low-performing, inner-city schools is arguably the chief education challenge presently facing policymakers and the nation, one might expect education school professors to emphasize teaching strategies as they relate to disadvantaged and struggling students. But as our? survey of teacher educators reveals, this is not the case: By larger than a three-to-one margin (73 percent to 20 percent), education professors say that, for the U.S. to live up to its ideals of justice and equality, it is more important for public schools to ?focus equally on all students, regardless of their backgrounds or achievement levels? (see below). Public school teachers (in a 2008 survey) are even more adamant: Eight-six percent say that schools should focus equally on all students. This doesn't necessarily translate into practice, however; sixty percent of these same public school teachers report that academically struggling students are a top priority at their schools, while only 23 percent report that academically advanced students are a top priority.
