"To find out, the Aspirations Research Center at the Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA) listened to students in 627 schools across the United States. Between 2006 and 2010, QISA surveyed 456,021 students in grades 6-12 through our My Voice survey. The results send a clear signal that both student achievement and student opportunity are connected to the kinds of expectations, relationships, and chances for participation that students perceive they have in school. We've come to think of the "opportunity gap" some students face as having three elements: the expectations gap, the relationships gap, and the participation gap." The article talks about how there is not one opportunity gap, but three that each influence how a child succeeds in life. It explains what can be done to fix these, and how each impacts a child's learning process.

"We see a narrowing of the current income gap as beneficial to the economy. In addition to strengthening the quality of economic expansions, bringing levels of income inequality under control would improve U.S. economic resilience in the face of potential risks to growth. From a consumer perspective, benefits would extend across income levels, boosting purchasing power among those in the middle and lower levels of the pay scale--while the richest Americans would enjoy increased spending power in a sustained economic expansion. Policymakers should take care, however, to avoid policies and practices that are either too heavy handed or foster an unchecked widening of the wealth gap. Extreme approaches on either side would stunt GDP growth and lead to shorter, more fragile expansionary periods." This article explains why income inequality in contributing to a lower economy, and why it is leading to harm of economic growthin the U.S.