Housing prices often reflect the quality of education. Reading scores were 3 to 5 percentile points higher. According to Harvard professor Paul Peterson, if these trends were to continue for all 12 years, the performance gap between African-American and white students would be completely eliminated in math and nearly eliminated in reading, by the time of graduation. In response to the loss of students, the public school system in Milwaukee now guarantees parents their children will be able to read by the end of third grade. Faced with a quarter of the students taking advantage of a school choice program and leaving Giffen Memorial Elementary School, long considered Albany, N.Y.'s worst performing elementary school, the school district replaced the principal and the assistant principal, reassigned 10 teachers and launched a literacy initiative.
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