The University of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Award in Education is a major honor for a book. This year’s winners wrote an important book that shows that education alone does not overcome poverty. The implication is that society must have social and economic policies that reduce poverty in addition to providing equal educational opportunity. In 2015, the award went to Andrew Hargreaves and Michael Fullan for their book, Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School; in 2014, I received the award for The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education; in 2013, Pasi Sahlberg received it for his book Finnish Lessons. The judges have good taste and very high standards!

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Dec. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Those born into poverty are unlikely to escape it—even if they have access to better opportunities through education. That’s a key conclusion drawn by…