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"Of the 17 Henrico County public schools that failed to earn full accreditation from the state, all but one are in the eastern side of the county."    I believe this article shows that there is a distinct difference between students and their schools in the eastern and western counties of Henrico. In addition, the educational opportunities provided to them also vary, and the learning environment they're placed in has a positive and negative effect as well. I think that these differences are growing, and that this is visible to the county and the parents and students of Henrico, in-which they''re doing all they can so that these students of the eastern counties don't fall even further behind.

"Henrico County Public Schools has a gap in student academic achievement. White students and Asian students perform at higher levels on most academic measures than do African American students, Hispanic students, and students with disabilities. While there are individual differences between students, this gap is evident when comparing overall student groups. To that end, the Henrico County community is invited to engage with the school division in this important work.  This webpage will serve as a portal for information about efforts to close the gap.  It will also be a place for the community to identify issues, share ideas, and celebrate successes.  " This article talks about the academic gap between the different races in Henrico County schools. It explains how the teachers are committed to closing it.

"Approaches to closing the achievement gap in Henrico Schools has taken a broad perspective with implementation of instructional strategies that are based on research and best practice; however, we have not made the desired progress to ensure all students learn to their highest potential. This is not an acceptable outcome for the students of Henrico County. The school board, the school division leadership, and the faculty and staff of every school is committed to closing this gap. " This article from the HCPS website confirms that there is an opportunity gap in henrico county schools. However, it focuses on the fact that this gap can be closed, and everything should be done to do so.

"Henrico County Public Schools has a gap in student academic achievement. White students and Asian students perform at higher levels on most academic measures than do African American students, Hispanic students, and students with disabilities. While there are individual differences between students, this gap is evident when comparing overall student groups." This article tells readers about the academic and achievement gap of not just between the upper and middle classes, but also between races.

"Many parents told CBS 6 last May that they believed the county treated the East End differently regarding school resources and educational opportunities." According to this article posted in 2012, the treatment that schools in the West end receive is much better than the treatment of schools in the East end. The West End was given a new middle and high school in 2010, which the East End hasn't had a new high school in over 50 years. Along with that, there was a large achievement gap between african american and white students, with white students having a much higher passing rate than african american students. 

"Parents believed because there are more white people, businesses, and higher taxes being paid in the West End, schools there got more attention." ""Even with our African-American students in our West End, the gap still existed, so this is not about East End or West End," Russo said." This article says that a possible reason to why there is an opportunity gap is because of the difference in social classes. Some people believe that since higher taxes are being paid, there are more whites, and more businesses on the West End, the  school located there are getting more attention. Although, Pat Russo confirmed that the African American students in the West End still create the gap within the school.

"Parents believed because there are more white people, businesses, and higher taxes being paid in the West End, schools there got more attention." "County data showed on reading SOL tests, 94% of whites passed compared to 82% of blacks." This article is from CBS 6 and specifically talks about Henrico County. It discusses the achievement gap in schools between the West End and the East End schools, including neglect from the county for the East End.

"Poverty is rapidly increasing in eastern Chesterfield as wealth is rising in western Chesterfield. The socioeconomic divide is growing, and our county's policies are contributing to this divide." This article demonstrates that income inequality isn't just based on a person's economic troubles, but on other factors such as the failed or corrupt policies that cause more harm than good. The article also takes care to elaborate how income inequality directly impacts crime, illness, and the lives of children.

"A child in poverty is more likely to live in poverty as an adult and to have children born into poverty. It is a statistic working against every child in poverty, but we can change it and make our entire community a better place." This article talks about the odds against children in poverty receiving a successful education. It urges the community to work together to help fill in the learning gaps for all children, enabling them to defeat the statistics working against every student in poverty.

The author of this article is a mother of a Chesterfield county student, who feels concerned about their county's oblivious lack of recognition towards the large number of families living in poverty. She states the risks children face when growing up poor and deprived, and how the county's efforts towards helping these students are somewhat missing. Each child deserves an equal opportunity in education, which has been varied between eastern and western Chesterfield county schools.

This article explains how "gifted" students or students who live near fluent areas have better opportunities. For instance Deep Run's A.P. exam showed 1 in every 1.6 students passed there Exam while as Highland Spring's A. P. exam showed 1 in every 45.3 students passed there exams. Overall kids living in the west end are probably going to do better than kids living in the east end.

"Local public high school students saved more than $9 million in college tuition last year by passing Advanced Placement exams before graduating, but the results were heavily influenced by students in a regional school for the academically gifted and in five largely affluent suburban schools. In the city of Richmond, students at three of the eight high schools didn't record a single passing score, and students in the city as a whole earned only about $150,000 worth of tuition, based on the cost of a three-credit class at Virginia Commonwealth University. Across the city and in the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico, students at schools in older areas and with predominantly minority enrollments took fewer AP classes and performed at lower levels on the exams." This article talked about how students living in older areas received minority enrollments and also performed low on the tests. This proves that there is opportunity gap because of the old area influencing the students (Reid).

""We need our kids to not just take these classes, but to pass the exams. It proves again the importance of making sure we have effective teachers in every classroom."" This article shows the different disparities in test scores in Henrico County and the things the county did to try to help the range of test scores.

Well it's unfortunate, but it's a fact. Income inequality is rising fast and there is nothing really we can currently do about it. Orange county has had it's pace of income inequality rising faster than any other and it clearly hasn't stopped. Obama's term may be ending soon and it leaves a clean slate... full of opportunity however the question is, "Will the opportunity be taken and used for the right purpose?"

Well it's unfortunate, but it's a fact. Income inequality is rising fast and there is nothing really we can currently do about it. Orange county has had it's pace of income inequality rising faster than any other and it clearly hasn't stopped. Obama's term may be ending soon and it leaves a clean slate... full of opportunity however the question is, "Will the opportunity be taken and used for the right purpose?"

"But visiting a place like Grundy reveals a more complicated picture. There are undoubtedly some who exaggerate their ailments in order to collect their checks. But many of the coal workers here have experienced horrific on-the-job accidents and can't go back to the mines. Other residents have been battered by diabetes, obesity, and tobacco. Others still suffer from severe depression and intellectual disabilities that would preclude most kinds of work. And most importantly, there are no other options here: no orthodontist's office where someone can work the front desk; no big firms brimming with entry-level secretarial jobs. It's not even clear how a person would go about calling around for a job here: My iPhone stopped working a few miles outside the county line." This article describes a small county, nestled in the Virginia Appalachians where many of the citizens rely on disability checks coming in every month. It argues both sides of the 'responsibility' argument, with examples of people who truly need disability payments and people who abuse the system.

Article talks about how Henrico is going to put more money into the education budget.

""We are building the leaders of tomorrow and we must do all we can to make sure our educational system is fair and equitable to all, regardless of a student's race or family's economic standing," said HCPS Superintendent Dr. Patrick Russo." This article talks about how certain people do better than others in Henrico County Public Schools creating an achievement gap. It shows how they plan to solve the problem stating that everyone deserves to have a proper education no matter what their race or background is.

"Before the school board and district can truly address the student achievement gap issues, they must be completely and painfully honest with themselves and others" This article, even though it was from 2 years ago, brings up a very good point. A big reason for achievement gaps is racism. It also says that the achievement gap in Henrico is caused by the incompetent school board and that they should change.

"Coyner explained there is a huge gap in achievement between those who live in a higher income school and lower income neighborhoods. Reading and math SOL tests for students in disadvantaged areas have dropped dramatically over the last three school years. Those in most schools in Chesterfield have dropped as well. SOL testing of students during the 2013-14 school year indicated that the pass rate of non-disadvantaged students was 85 percent in reading and 83 percent in math, while students who came from disadvantaged homes had a pass rate of 58 percent in reading and 63 percent in math." This article outlines the achievement and educational gaps in Henrico, Chesterfield, and the City of Richmond. It displays the educational differences between privileged and non-privileged students.

"The greatest increase across the area in childhood poverty since 1990 is Henrico, a 70 percent increase, according to data collected by Moeser. His data concludes that Chesterfield is next with a 41 percent increase in poverty. Those living in poverty, in the suburbs, across the country, have grown more than in the cities. Poverty in the suburbs has grown to 56 percent in the suburbs versus 44 percent in the cities." This articles describes the poverty, opportunity, and achievement gaps between advanced and disadvantaged kids in Chesterfield and Henrico. Researchers found shocking results and are trying to make the gaps smaller in the two counties.

"Education and poverty are closely related according to speakers at Ms. Coyner's forum. "What I tried to do is bring the data back to what we all know as our neighborhood schools," Coyner said. Coyner tracked poverty in schools using the free and reduced lunch program with one caveat; She said that just because a student is eligible for free or reduced lunch, it doesn't mean they use it. Title 1 schools are another way to track poverty in schools. There are 16 elementary and 13 middle schools in the Title 1 program in Chesterfield." This article was helpful in analyzing the local education gap and what factors might play a role in it. What is mainly suggested here is that poverty is the main factor controlling the education gap. This also talks a little about income and poverty in Richmond.

"The Richmond and Hanover County school systems have sharply different racial demographics, and dropout percentages that differ as well in their reports to the Department of Education." This articles talks about the reasons how Henrico has different education from others and that results in more dropout rates.

"Data shows that 27 percent of low-income third-grade students and 41 percent of those students in eighth grade are not reading on grade level. Only 7 percent of higher-income students in the third grade and 15 percent of those students in eighth grade are reading below grade level." This was helpful because it talks about how the opportunity gap affects people. It helps you to understand what it is, and its effect not just on people, but how it makes certain races look.

"The opportunity to learn-the necessary resources, the curriculum opportunities, the quality teachers-that affluent students have, is what determines what people can do in life." Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor of Education at Stanford University This includes information such as the different percentages of experienced teachers in different counties, states, cities, and districts. It mentions data about the education gap between different races in the US. It also gives information on how the access to high-level courses varies by state, and reasons and ways to close the opportunity gap.

In this article, they talk about opportunity gaps in America. They also talk about racial discrimination when it comes to getting a good education.

This article is about how the Eastern part of Chesterfield is in greater poverty compared to the Western part of Chesterfield. In the article they talk about how it effects their schools. The article also talks about ways to solve these problems.

In this article the lawyer James Ryan, the new dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, argues persuasively about the opportunity gap in counties all across the nation.

"It is common among education reformers to describe the country's current education crisis as "the civil-rights issue of our time." For Ryan, that is literally so: the crisis stems from the failure to desegregate public schools after the Supreme Court would not let remedies for reform cross the line between city and suburbs, a fundamental divide of geography, race, and class."