on class warfare

Since I picked up the book, I have been uncomfortable with the title and today I realized why. Class tells me that this book takes into account the differences in SES of students from poverty areas. Warfare implies that there is a fight to be won or lost. However, the book then argues that teachers and schools make the difference.We know that teachers are a significant factor, but:

Unfortunately, Brill is completely ignorant of a vast body of research literature about teaching. Economists agree that teachers are the most important influence on student test scores inside the school, but the influence of schools and teachers is dwarfed by nonschool factors, most especially by family income. The reformers like to say that poverty doesn’t make a difference, but they are wrong. Poverty matters. The achievement gap between children of affluence and children of poverty starts long before the first day of school. It reflects the nutrition and medical care available to pregnant women and their children, as well as the educational level of the children’s parents, the vocabulary they hear, and the experiences to which they are exposed.

 -- Ravitch