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Robert Pondiscio takes on the most uncompromising believers that poverty is no excuse for achievement gaps:

"it is unacceptable for a teacher to lower his or her expectations of a student's capabilities based on economic status. But where this laudable belief leaves the rails is when you hold the teacher accountable if she fails to get every child to proficiency.... 'Never stop trying' is an essential character trait for a teacher. 'Never fail' is a silly and ultimately self-defeating standard."

It is necessary to believe every student can learn to a high standard--and critical to work tirelessly towards that goal. But surely this conviction should not preclude any acknowledgement of poverty's effect on student achievement. Pondiscio rightly objects to the false dichotomy ("no excuses" vs. "demography is destiny") that governs so much talk about poverty and student achievement.

Of course we must screen out educators who use poverty as an excuse to do anything less than their best work. Teachers play an absolutely critical role in closing achievement gaps. But it seems equally irresponsible to turn a blind eye to poverty, or to castigate teachers for acknowledging poverty's effects.

The French poet Baudelaire characterized the ability to believe two apparently opposing ideas at once as a mark of genius. So much of the current discussion about schools and poverty falls far short of that standard.

One drawback of the most vehement "no excuses" arguments is that they in fact excuse so many people from fulfilling their responsibilities for supporting student success. What, for example, is the excuse for the appalling funding disparities that force our neediest students to make do with the fewest resources? A recent penetrating study of these long-standing disparities concludes with policies that would narrow, but certainly not close, these gaps. Their reason? Closing resource gaps is politically infeasible.

Sadly, the study's authors may be right. Yet that hardly sounds like a "no excuses" philosophy. Educators in "high expectations" schools have a right to feel a bit miffed when we hold policymakers to such low expectations.

"No excuses" applies to everyone.