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"Students at high-poverty schools often require incentives, reminders and calls to parents to be persuaded to take exams, especially if they're on the brink of failing, said Project LIFT Zone Superintendent Denise Watts."

"SCARCE, or School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education, provides teachers and schools with supplies and books throughout the year. At the fair, the organization will have 12,000 books to give to students targeted at preschool children all the way through high school. It's helping them because it's low-income kids, so they might not have their own resources to go out and buy books,' Kelly Burda of SCARCE said. It's helping them with literacy because they're more likely to read if they have something they enjoy.'"

"Back-to-school costs are expected to increase this year, according to one index, but local corporations and nonprofits are stepping in to help low-income families equip their children for schools."

"South Carolina was among a handful of states last week to be left out of a more than $21.5 million federal grant program that covers testing fees for low-income students."

"Open to any low-income family with a child slated to attend a school rated C or below, the program could technically have drawn as many as 380,000 applicants. Yet more families ultimately asked for a spot than could be accommodated at the 119 participating schools. Of the 9,750 applications deemed eligible, about 5,600 got matched to a seat."

"A growing group of education advocates is agitating for more time in schools, arguing that low-income children in particular need more time to catch up as schools face increasing pressure to improve student test scores."

"The percentage of Washington students classified as homeless in 2010-11 was up nearly 20 percent from the previous year and more than 50 percent over the five-year span, according to the report."

"Two hundred volunteers from Elevation Rock Hill stood outside the store Friday and Saturday to help stuff the bus' with school supplies for children in need during tax-free weekend."

"A representative at Episcopal Commons, a low-income housing agency for Perry County seniors and disabled people, cited Duncannon as well when, in fact, the nearest ID center is 271/2 miles away in Cumberland County, a 45-minute drive away."

"One local woman, however, is working to change that. Lynette Ramirez, the founder of Ready 4 Reading, established a book club more than two years ago to get books into the hands of children living in poverty after she learned that illiteracy was growing at a rate of 2.5 million people a year."

"For the first time, the state called attention not only to schools that failed to make the grade but also to those that soared. Twenty-seven schools that receive federal poverty money are hailed as model schools' whose highly effective techniques will be studied and shared."

"By next July, 3,000 low-income or minority students in southeastern Wisconsin will choose a career path, talk to professionals in that industry and map a high school and post-secondary education strategy under a new initiative from the Greater Milwaukee Committee's Talent Dividend."