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"The latest batch of college-readiness scores brought glum news across the country Monday, but especially for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and its high-poverty high schools. SAT scores, used to gauge whether high school seniors have the reading, math and writing skills needed for college, dipped slightly nationwide and in North Carolina. Only 43 percent of the students who took the test in 2012 hit a new benchmark' score of 1,550 out of a possible 2,400, according to The College Board, which administers the test."

"This is why plans by Washington, D.C., and some states to lower academic standards for minority and low-income students are as puzzling as they are misdirected. By what calculation do you speed up learning by lowering expectations? This delivers a devastating message to black, Hispanic and low-income children that they are not as capable as other children."

"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Monday that the city would open a new type of preschool in Brooklyn next year, introducing a cradle-to-kindergarten approach to education for very young children in poor neighborhoods."

"The New Teacher Project was created in 1997 to bring new, strong teachers into high-poverty urban schools. In partnership with CMS, it runs TEACH Charlotte, which recruits people in other fields and recent college graduates and trains them to lead classrooms in hard-to-fill schools and subjects. The group eventually shortened its name and broadened its focus to look at policy issues. The Irreplaceables,' released this summer, came about when the group questioned why it's so hard for urban schools to keep great teachers. Student behavior, lack of parent involvement and undesirable locations are all real factors that discourage teachers, Daly said."

"For that reason, the responsibility to promote literacy in Maine extends beyond the K-12 education system to programs such as Head Start, which provides a framework to introduce rudimentary literacy skills to children from low-income families. In addition to advocating that resources allocated to Head Start adequately reflect new demands for early literacy training, the Department of Education, through initiatives like Literacy for ME,' can provide an organizational structure and repository for resources. But -- as the report makes clear -- the effort requires broad community participation."

"What began about six years ago as an idea to give low-income children in West Chicago more than just a head start before kindergarten has become a reality for 150 infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Educare of West DuPage, a state-of-the-art preschool, recently opened across the park from West Chicago Elementary District 33's Pioneer Elementary School, which has the highest percentage of low-income students of any elementary school in DuPage County."

"The teachers insisted that any evaluation has to take into account the fact that poverty and other social problems make many of their students virtually unteachable. This is true, but there's also a circular element to their arguments. The widespread poverty and social dysfunction are at least partly rooted in the failure of the last generation of schoolchildren to get adequate instruction in Chicago public schools."

"The fact is that states with strong unions tend to have higher student test scores than states, such as South Carolina, that are non-union. Of course, that's because there is a strong correlation between unionization, poverty and student test scores. That's because test scores remain primarily a function of poverty and affluence. In other words, unionized states tend to be more affluent and non-union states tend to be high-poverty. We must look beyond the union element and recognize that urban teachers in Chicago share with South Carolina the burden of poverty that is reflected in measurable student outcomes."

"The commonly perceived under-performance of schools in high-poverty areas is a reflection of the truth of most such schools: the effects of poverty itself -- and not, as a rule, a lacking in quality teachers there. The nation's wildly disproportionate level of child poverty is "the number 1 problem," she asserts. Fix poverty and you fix the school."

"A San Francisco nonprofit named Earn is offering low-income families in the Bay Area and Los Angeles a 3-to-1 match worth up to $1,500 per child on their education savings. For every $1 an eligible family puts in up to $500 per child, the program will put in $3, up to $1,500 per child. The money is deposited in an FDIC-insured bank account and can be used to pay for educational expenses from middle through high school including tutoring, computers, summer and after-school enrichment programs."

"Lake Michigan College is one of seven colleges across the nation participating in an experimental program to see if coordinated financial help, such as child care subsidies and food assistance, helps low-income students complete a degree."

"The overlap between schools with high minority populations and those with high levels of poverty was significant. According to the report, the typical black or Latino student attends a school where almost two out of every three classmates come from low-income families. Mr. Orfield said that schools with mostly minority and poor students were likely to have fewer resources, less assertive parent groups and less experienced teachers. The issue of segregation hovers over many discussions about the future of education."