Education and Poverty News
"Randolph High dropped fees and restored junior-varsity sports after a $5.48 million override passed in April 2008, and Brockton officials say fees would create hardship for the 64 percent of the students at the high school who are classified as low-income."
"The district could not afford to forgo the grant money, said Burlington schools superintendent Jeanne Collins. Nor could Wheeler - a school with many recently arrived refugees from Africa and other parts of the world, many students from deep poverty, and notably low test scores."
"Test scores as a whole have risen rapidly, but some schools are performing abysmally, with others comprising a vast middle group, improving but still struggling to teach basic reading and math to low-income students who came in three, four, even five grade levels behind."
"Those were the images of local poverty that businessman Doug Pitt couldn't shake. The result with early pledges of help from Brad Pitt, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation and businessman Jim D. Morris was Care to Learn."
"The federal government has awarded a total of $1 million over five years to Santa Fe Community College to help low-income and first-generation students and students with disabilities finish their education."
"For homeless students living at the Missouri Hotel, access to computers often ended with the school day. There was nowhere close to complete online assignments, play educational games or look up a topic discussed in class."
"According to the federal government, among Washington’s low-income black eighth-graders, only 8 percent have achieved eighth-grade math proficiency. Among the state’s nonpoor white students, about half meet this standard."
"Meadowlane is one of only eight schools in Alabama recognized by the state Department of Education as a school where high poverty has not translated into low achievement."
"I don't see it. I am particularly uncomfortable with any plan that lets 14-year-old ninth-graders choose a vocational track, as used to happen with low-income kids."
"City colleges, or junior colleges, as they were once known, were not always a way station for students who were behind in reading and math. The average student in junior college used to be a kid from a working-class or impoverished family who had to work..."
"Although the college graduation rate of Bridges students is better than the national average of about 40 percent for students from low-income families, the gift should help increase their chances of success, Swartz said."
"Half of the $250 million will go to school districts, based on their number of low-income students... The rest will be spent on statewide efforts. Massachusetts was among nine states and the District of Columbia to prevail in the second round of the Race to the Top competition..."
"The system hopes to teach students at these high-poverty schools about nutrition and fitness, train their parents to live healthier and allow teachers there to start wellness programs together."
"When it comes to poverty - a contributing factor for dropping out of school - the majority of those affected are single parents. Thirty-seven percent of single moms and 17.5 percent of single dads are in poverty, whereas just 6.7 percent of married couples are in poverty."
"The ultimate goal of the program is to break the poverty cycle, but some of the other side effects include lowering the high school dropout rate, reducing the number of children in at-risk situations and lessening the number of students repeating grades, DeMelo said."
"The recruits commit to teach for two years in low-income urban and rural public schools. The program was formed to match needy schools with elite teachers from schools such as Harvard, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley."
"Their number-one recommendation to begin to remedy this is to 'provide a program of voluntary preschool education, universally available to children from low-income families such that all children at or below... the official poverty line have a chance to enter school..."
"Fitting in with classmates. Adjusting to a new school. Managing homework and after-school activities. As students adjust to the rigors of a new school year, an increasing number of their classmates face an extra challenge: homelessness."
"Studies show that low-income students lose knowledge over the summer, and some state educators are advocating year-round school to ease the problem."
"About 335,000 low-income students have qualified for Cal Grants, but the state won't be sending out the money – a total of $407 million – until there's a budget deal. (Most Cal Grant recipients also receive other financial aid, including federal loans and grants, that isn't being held up.)"
"The Bibb County school system is now included as one of the parties in an amicus brief being filed in support of school systems in the state that want control over granting charter school petitions."
"In 2009, a two-parent family living at the poverty line would have to spend about half its income to afford placing a baby in a day care center, according to a report by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies."
"At the same time, some of the biggest gains came on campuses in low-income areas, schools often considered failing by state and federal standards."
"But these days, the most telling criticism is coming from centrists and liberals, who believe that affirmative action... has become unfair to the poor, and frequently fails to reach those whom it was originally intended to help the most: African-Americans victimized by... Jim Crow segregation."
"His main goal is equal access to quality education. As part of that, he'd also like to address the district's clusters of high-poverty schools, dropout rates and distribution of resources between suburban and inner-city schools."
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