Latest Coverage

"For students to enter the program, they must be in grades 7, 8 or 9, maintain a B or C average, be on the free-and-reduced-lunch program at school, and live at or below the federal poverty level, Picado said. Mentors have to qualify, too, she said"

"'The ones who are really interested in reading, they seem to have better behavior throughout the classroom,' said Jackson who teaches at a local Head Start, which serves low-income families."

"Students would be picked by lottery, with preference given to low-income students and, eventually, to those with siblings already attending the schools. In the first year, proposed for fall 2012, there would be an elementary school serving 176 kindergarten and first-grade students."

"The Republican-majority school board that took office in December 2009 eliminated the use of socioeconomic diversity from the student assignment policy after some parents complained about... poor performance of low-income students."

"The goal of More at Four is to ensure that at-risk children, many from low-income families or with special educational needs, enter kindergarten with the academic and social skills necessary for success."

"They also set aside time for one-on-one conferences, provide individual feedback regarding students' growth and areas for improvement These classrooms tend to inspire student motivation and benefit all pupils, especially low-income students."

"Payne cautioned, however, against shirking local responsibility to lift graduation rates by blaming history or dismissing the problem as a national one. And, like other educators who weighed in on the topic, Payne said poverty, not race, is the biggest contributor to a high dropout rate."

"'We really see higher education as ... a way to end the cycle of poverty,' said Suzanne Walsh, senior program officer... with the Gates Foundation. She said research shows low-income students who haven't earned a degree or certificate by age 26 are unlikely to ever escape poverty."

"These are children of extreme poverty: At least a third of them live in public housing projects. Most of the rest live in crumbling rentals. The effects of poverty are so strong... that students at Lafayette often begin kindergarten two years behind in development."

"LIFO can have an especially devastating effect on schools that serve low-income children. That's because these schools are more likely to be served by newer teachers, the ones most at risk of being laid off under this harmful policy."

"The Obama Administration has been using its Race to the Top program to support states that are coming up with innovative systems, and the new early education grant will go to states that increase access to early learning programs for low-income and disadvantaged children..."

"Scott Osborne sees some of Anderson's poorest children every day as their bus driver. Nevitt Forest Elementary's Kelly Elrod sees them and their parents, too, as principal of the county's poorest school."