Latest Coverage

"The school system is 88 percent black (compared with the city's 63 percent black population), and 84 percent of students are on free or reduced-price meals, a measure of poverty."

"'I do not want to see all those high-poverty schools created and no diversity at all in the rim schools,' said Morrison, referring to schools between downtown and outer suburbia. 'It's going back to resegregation, and it's very intentional in my opinion.'"

"The program, launched last summer, increases digital literacy among low-income youth, preparing them for jobs in information and broadband technology."

"Boundary lines may define district attendance zones, but they don't divide the haves and have nots."

"The nation's high school graduation rate, which declined in the latter part of the 20th century, may have hit bottom and begun to rise, according to a report to be issued Tuesday by a nonprofit group founded by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell."

"Minority students and students from low-income families are significantly less likely than others to be enrolled in eighth-grade algebra, a Kansas City Star analysis of Missouri test records shows"

"And nearly all high-poverty urban districts have graduation rates that lag behind the national average."

"Statistically, there is a near-perfect relationship between the poverty level of the student population at a high school and its tendency to lose students before graduation day."

"[Advocates] say overcrowding could be reduced by moving some suburban kids to less-crowded center-city campuses. Absent that, they say the results will be disastrous if class sizes go up in high-poverty schools."

"The meals are distributed by request across the county every Thanksgiving. Most of the recipients are low-income seniors with limited mobility or those who don't have family in the area."

"Poverty and disease steal the lives that war spared. 'Sudan is the worst in the world in maternal health,' said Atem, pointing to statistics showing that mothers die in 2,000 of every 100,000 births."

"'I wouldn't miss it for the world,' Gollier said. 'It's one of the funnest things I do.' Under Gollier's guidance, students worked with organizations that aid the local homeless population."