This paper scrutinizes the relationship between poverty and educational outcomes in both England and the United States with particular emphasis on the ameliorative effects of educational policy in poor communities.  Poverty appeared as a social problem in the late nineteenth century as industrialization expanded, and despite interventions in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, poverty did not disappear. In the same vein, there has been consistent interest in education and educational outcomes throughout the last century.  While the foundations of the present systems are rooted in the ideals of Horace Mann and the Education Act 1870, the emergence of the English comprehensive school movement and US civil rights legislation were conscious policy endeavours to increase equality of opportunity for lower socio-economic groups and racial minorities in the twentieth century. It was hoped that by improving educational opportunity, systemic poverty would decline.

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