An article in yesterday’s Trenton Times discusses the “huge achievement gap” in newly-released standardized test scores between black, Hispanic, and low-income kids, and white and Asian kids, particularly in Trenton. Writer Meir Rinde interviews State Board of Education member Arcelio Aponte, who questions the value of state-funded pre-schools which were supposed to ameliorate the gap. The latest set of scores, says Aponte, “sort of throws that theory out the window.”

Not so fast, says Sarah Kern, chair of the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at The College of New Jersey.

“You have to have superior teachers in the classroom,” she said. “You have to have a way of making up the deficit with children in kindergarten, first, second, and third grades. One year of a bad teacher undoes two years with a good teacher. That is a fact.”

In other words, we can fund the finest pre-schools in Trenton, but it’s futile until we address teacher quality, especially for our neediest kids.