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"Studies show that in low-income neighborhoods, there is one book for every 300 children. In middle-class home, figures show 13 books for each child."

"Amid the ceaseless and cacophonous debates about how to close the achievement gap, we've turned away from one tool that has been shown to work: school desegregation."

"Pinellas County's school administrators have given what they hope is that final answer to a faith-based group seeking educators' buy-in to change the way core reading instruction is delivered in high-poverty schools."

"Sonya Swansbrough - principal of Poe Middle School, where many students are living in poverty or learning English as a second language - agreed. The old tests were 'just a minimum standard - this is the basic that all students should be able to achieve,' she said. 'We don't want to stop at that. Nobody wants their children to have minimum standards.'"

"For the second time this year, the Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a civil rights complaint against the Jefferson Parish School Board, this time alleging it sends a disproportionate number of black and disabled students to alternative schools to languish for months."

"With more than 300,000 residents age 85 and over, Pennsylvania's senior population is the largest it has ever been, and it is increasing at 10 times the rate of the rest of the population. Yet a proposed cut to the state budget would take away 4 percent of the funding -- $100 million -- for low-income seniors who receive at-home nursing care."

"The national network of KIPP charter schools last spring announced plans to more than double the number of its low-income students who graduate from college, by partnering with colleges and universities that encourage KIPP students to apply and support those who enroll."

"...[F]reedom is what CCP provided for Lopez and Joyner, who graduated with associate's degrees last week. Lopez, 26, earned a full ride to Bryn Mawr, and Joyner, 45, has been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania."

"Outside the schools, their community is one where child poverty topped 50 percent in 2000, according to census and state health data; that is four times the national rate for white children. Here, third-grade test scores are used to project future prison capacity when prison contractors lobby the state for funds."

"From low graduation rates to low standardized test scores, the governor said addressing these issues is essential to decreasing poverty rates on Guam."

"Nearly 80 percent of the students qualify for subsidized lunch, a mark of poverty. The school's makeup is in line with charter schools nationally, which are over all less integrated than traditional public schools."

"There are 4,700 homeless students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and less than 25 percent graduate, said Annabelle Suddreth, executive director of A Child's Place. The local nonprofit works with Charlotte-area homeless children, who are often behind in their studies and suffer emotional problems."