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"Samantha Garvey, who was living in a homeless shelter with her family when she was named a semifinalist in the national Intel science talent search early this year, is packing up and heading for Maine."

"'This evaluation shows that high-quality pre-kindergarten programs with a heightened emphasis in language and literacy experiences are beneficial for all children, especially children of poverty,' said Tamika Carmouche, project director for NSECD research."

"A survey of 1,123 manufacturing executives released last year found that 67 percent of companies had a moderate to severe shortage of available, qualified workers. The report estimated 600,000 jobs nationwide were going unfilled because of a lack of qualified candidates"

"Missouri lawmakers have cut millions of dollars from the state's early head start programs, which pays for daycare for children of low-income parents. The budget cuts leave these parents scrambling, trying to figure out how to pay for daycare for the month of July."

"Fifteen more seniors will have meals delivered to their homes every week for a year, thanks to the joint efforts of two local agencies and Jack Hopkins Social Service Funding grants promoting agency collaboration."

"Now the building, Carolina Community Actions at 546 S. Cherry Road, is where the poorest among us, the elderly and the disabled go to get help to keep electricity on for a refrigerator. Or to keep fans running. Or if lucky, air conditioning humming. Social Security is all Bell has."

"Jennings describes equity-based change as leveling the playing field for minorities, women and the poor. Standards-based change, he says, means using common testing benchmarks. Both initiatives can be seen in every state."

"The review is taking place with a backdrop of a new assignment plan that replaces a system that attempted to keep any school from being overloaded with low-income students. The new plan's emphasis on choice appears to be inducing low-income and minority families to choose schools closer to home."

"Legislators this year thought they had fixed a $436 million grant program intended to raise up the state's poorest school districts, but you can't convince folks in rural Calhoun County that they succeeded."

"Instead, P.S. 257, where 73 percent of the students are Hispanic, has found integration to be far more intricate. One of four Williamsburg elementary schools to win a 2010 magnet grant from the United States Education Department to spur desegregation, it has struggled to follow a federal model created decades ago while focusing on more urgent battles: for resources, students and, above all, test scores."

"Low-income students lose more than two months in reading achievement. More than half of the achievement gap between low- and high-income students is explained by the difference in summer learning opportunities. Of course, not all students lose ground. Middle- and upper-income students actually gain reading skill during the summer."

"Gary Huggins, CEO of the nonprofit National Summer Learning Association in Baltimore, said most children lose about two months of math skills each summer, and low-income children lose an additional two to three months of reading skills. And that loss can have a cumulative affect."