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"Although 88 percent of its students live below the poverty line, UCA consistently has met or exceeded expectations on Georgia's Criterion-Reference Competency Tests, which determine if students in grades 1-8 have learned what the state says they should."

"What's more galling is that civil rights groups would oppose Obama administrationinitiatives to improve failing schools... And that the basis for their opposition is the claim that the initiatives are unfair to minority and low-income students."

"Mintz, in a middle-income neighborhood, has more than half its students listed as economically disadvantaged, but does not qualify for low-income funding under the federal Title 1 program.So money is, indeed, a factor."

"In Vermont and the nation, low-income children typically score lower than middle- and upper-income children on standardized tests. Some research suggests low-income children slide academically in summer, while higher-income children continue to learn."

"The changes were even more dramatic for black and Hispanic students, children with disabilities, students in high-poverty districts and those whose first language is not English."

Nearly a third of all public high school studentsand roughly half of those who live in low-income communitiesfail to graduate with their class, according to an op-ed by Dorothy Stoneman, president and founder of YouthBuild USA . The author argues that the young people without a high school diploma are more likely to face unemployment and poverty, especially during the recession. Stoneman recommends that Congress continue to invest in programs that provide low-income young adults with effective education and job training. In YouthBuild programs, young people earn their GEDs and learn job skills by building affordable housing for poor and homeless families.

"Almost 1 million homeless students attended public schools in 2008-09, a 41 percent increase over the previous two years and another sign of how broadly the economic recession has struck America."

"Nearly 60 percent of the school districts in the state, representing 81 percent of Illinois' public school kids and 86 percent of its low-income public school kids, have signed on. That's up from 42 percent of districts in the first round."

"Larry Green is superintendent of a rural school district that stretches alongside the Mississippi River, and he knows how challenging life can be for children from poor families."

"I worked with Strickland to put in place the Education Challenge Factor, which is sensitive to districts that need more money based on the poverty level, property values and, for the first time, the education attainment levels of the parents."

"But Tuesday, after 1,000 people rallied in downtown Raleigh to support economic (and racial) diversity in schools, Margiotta said: 'This board does not intend to create high-poverty or low-performing schools in the new zone assignments.'"

"The state Department of Education plans to design new research-based evaluation models over the next few months. Officials hope to try out the models next year in school divisions with low-achieving and high-poverty schools."