By Andrew Pillow

Many in Ed-Reform circles have been conditioned to think that all the problems schools face are confined to the inner city rather than the more “affluent” suburbs. This report will put that notion to bed.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education, or CRPE, released a report that details some of the challenges facing suburban schools.

The report, Suburban Schools: The Unrecognized Frontier in Public Education, discusses how schools in suburban areas face many of the same challenges as inner-city schools… and even some unique ones.

One big takeaway is that poverty is increasing in the suburbs, and oftentimes, the services available to inner-city students to combat the problems associated with poverty are harder to come by for suburban students.

A brief explanation of the report’s claims via educationnews.org says:

“Many antipoverty support services are concentrated in inner cities, and those organizations working in the suburbs must function over wider geographic areas. Additionally, poor residents often lack a means of transportation and public services are not available. Charitable regional and national foundations often focus on inner-cities and ignore the suburbs.”

The report also discussed growing populations, and English language learners.

Read more here.