Latest Coverage

"North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue is sounding an alarm about early childhood education funding by spending time this week with young schoolchildren... A judge said last year the General Assembly went too far in the state budget and put obstacles in the way of low-income families to benefit from the state's prekindergarten program."

"'I believe there has always been a need, but because of the economy there is a greater need,' said Bill Curtis, principal of Chipman Elementary. 'We see it in our high rate of students eligible for Free and Reduced Meals, and our number of students who are homeless. Thanks to this community partnership, the children will no longer have to be hungry and tired.'"

"The similarities among schools in urban and rural settings where he worked New Orleans, Tensas, Baton Rouge were strong, he said. 'One of the biggest things we had in common is the poverty and the background these kids come from. It wasn't so much about race as much as poverty,' said Dobard, an African-American."

"The Relationship between spending evermore money on schooling and student achievement isn't what it's cracked up to be. Even the vaunted student-teacher ratio doesn't always tell us what we want to know. Exhibit One is the Sausalito Marin City School District. For its non-charter primary and middle school students it expends an eye-popping $41,872 per year. That's more than the $40,050 tuition that Stanford University charges full-time undergraduate students."

"District figures show that, as of January, 49.4 percent of students enrolled in the Fayette County Public Schools were receiving free or reduced-cost school meals, based on their families' low incomes."

"Since the economy collapsed in 2008, Florida's student population has become poorer each year with almost all school districts in the state experiencing spikes in the number of kids who qualify for subsidized meals. Children have become homeless at alarming numbers as well."

"But Mr. Gulbranson and many other residents who describe themselves as self-sufficient members of the American middle class and as opponents of government largess are drawing more deeply on that government with each passing year. "

"Many of Broward County's high-poverty public schools are getting shortchanged, with less local and state money spent on teachers and staff than in their wealthier counterparts, according to federal data."

While many educators and many governors celebrated, congressional Republicans accused Obama of executive overreach, and education and civil-rights groups questioned if schools would be getting a pass on aggressively helping poor and minority children -- the kids the 2002 law was primarily designed to help."

"In return for granting the waiver, the U.S. Department of Education will require Tennessee to increase its percentage of students considered proficient or advanced on state exams by at least 3 percent each year. That number is 6 percent for low-income and minority students."

"Professor Reardon is the author of a study that found that the gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by about 40 percent since the 1960s, and is now double the testing gap between blacks and whites."

"ۢ Significant attention to building students' background knowledge through wide reading, particularly of nonfiction, and direct vocabulary instruction particularly important in districts with large numbers of low-income students."