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"Kentucky is lagging in its efforts to increase graduation rates among poor, minority and under-prepared college students, according to the Council on Postsecondary Education's latest accountability report. The annual report, to be discussed by the council at a meeting Friday, showed a six-year graduation rate of 49 percent among bachelor's degree-seeking students in 2012-13, the latest data available."

"When it comes to advocating for greater reliance on public benefits for low-income individuals, the idea is already a tough political sell among anti-entitlement elected officials and segments of the electorate that view the benefits as handouts. But what if those public benefits were being extended to community college students as a way to boost their chances of earning a credential?"

"A souped-up bus will bring 3-D printing, robotics and digital design instruction to Lansing's low-income areas as early as next summer. By August 2015, the Techtransport bus is expected to bring the nonprofit Information Technology Empowerment Center's classes to local communities whose residents can't afford Internet service. ITEC showed off the donated bus at a gathering Tuesday at the Foster Community Center."

"A bill that would provide meals for low-income students on days schools are shut down over winter weather was vetoed by Mayor Vincent Gray over concerns about funding and endangering children, leaving one Councilmember who created the legislation 'baffled.'"

"Low-income students in some of Colorado's more affluent school districtsBoulder, Cherry Creek, and St. Vrain Valleyare more likely to attend top colleges than their peers around the state.But across the state, and even in those districts, less well-off students attend elite schools at a lower rate than more affluent students."

"With a goal of fiber-optic lines reaching to every school and a Wi-Fi connection in every classroom, Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is expected on Monday to propose a 62 percent increase in the amount of money the agency spends annually to wire schools and libraries with high-speed Internet connections."

"Standardized test scores in DC have risen significantly in the seven years since schools came under mayoral control, according to a recent study, and it's not just because of an increase in affluent students. But while math scores have gone up steadily, literacy scores have largely stalled after an early jump. While DC officials have touted increases in test scores as a sign that education reforms are working, critics have argued that DC's changing demographics are behind the improvements. They say an influx of more affluent students has driven up the scores while the gap between those students and lower-income minority students has remained as wide as ever."

"Financial aid and scholarships have largely spared students from low and some middle-income families from shouldering the cost of recent tuition increases at the University of California and California State University, an independent think tank reported Wednesday. The Public Policy Institute of California said in a new report that even though in-state tuition increased an average of 64 percent at UC campuses during the height of the recession, most families with annual incomes under $110,000 did not end up paying more thanks to a greater availability of federal and state grants and aid supplied by the colleges themselves."

"Brown University launched a major new initiative Thursday aimed at providing internships, research opportunities, and funding to all freshmen, sophomores, and juniors -- particularly those from low-income backgrounds. Called BrownConnect, the program began with a pilot phase last year and has already created 154 new internship opportunities, the university said. It has also provided financial support for 254 interns in low-paid or unpaid internships."

"The best way, of course, to figure out how much you'll pay for college is to use a college cost calculator. Every college that takes federal student aid is required to provide information about how much students actually pay the net price, not the sticker price. The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit based out of Columbia University's Teacher College, has a nice roundup of the data, which is segmented by income. You can look up a college and see, for instance, how much an average student with family income below $30,000 pays every year after grants and scholarships are accounted for."

"Hispanics attending public schools in major cities posted similar gains, with 10-point and 13-point increases in grades four and eight, respectively. That's surprising, said Natalia Pane, author of the report and senior vice president of research operations at Child Trends. 'It's really interesting what's going on in the large cities,' Pane said. 'Our large cities were able to keep pace when they've got such higher proportions of students coming from low-income families.'"