If you grew up in a lower-income community, or less well-off, the belief is that the way to change that circumstance is through education.

You may not do well, necessarily, up front, and in order to be the best, you've got to work hard.

My parents came from an environment where everyone knew that the way to be successful was to get a great education, and that was going to be your ticket in life. If you could succeed in education then you would succeed in life, so that was sort of the driving force behind my parents' upbringing, and therefore kind of how they brought me up.

Poverty is so significant that we can't expect to overcome the impacts of poverty in schools.

If you grew up in a lower-income community, or less well-off, the belief is that the way to change that circumstance is through education.

In schools where parent involvement is greater, you do have higher achievement levels and better functioning, better performing schools.

Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job.