What will do the most to narrow the achievement gap?

With the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act, pressure to close the achievement gap between poor, minority, and urban students and wealthy, nonminority, and suburban students has been placed even more heavily on schools. A recent editorial in the New York Times, however, highlighted the idea that perhaps there is only so much schools can do. Factors in students' lives, such as family income and parental involvement, do not originate in classrooms and cannot always be solved by what goes on in the classroom.

On the other hand, few would argue that schools should simply throw up their hands: Teachers and school administrators can do (and already do) a tremendous amount of work to improve student performance. Which of the following strategies do you think will do the most for underserved student communities? We're interested in your opinion.