School districts have resorted to hiring debt collectors, employing constables, and swapping out standard meals for scaled-back versions to try to coerce parents to pay off school lunch debt that, in recent years, appears to have surged as the result of a faltering economy and better record-keeping. While the average school lunch costs just about…

The fractious debate over how much schools can counteract poverty's impact on children is far from settled, but a recently published collection of research strongly suggests that until policymakers and educators confront deepening economic and social disparities, poor children will increasingly miss out on finding a path to upward social mobility.…

A growing number of educators around the country are turning to technology and different teaching and learning approaches to give students personalized learning experiences that mirror the customized experiences they take for granted outside of school. To meet students' individual needs, they are putting in place 1-to-1 computing programs and…

A federal program that provides housing vouchers to help poor families move out of high-poverty neighborhoods appears to be having little impact so far on children's academic achievement, a new report finds. Four to seven years after leaving their old neighborhoods, the study found, children who took part in the program were doing no better in…

The first in a series of long-awaited studies indicates that nationally certified teachers are more effective at raising their students' reading and math scores than are teachers who apply for the credential but do not receive it. Although critics have questioned the expenditure of state and district money on National Board for Professional…

A national study released in 2005 concluded that most high school students are not exposed to high quality science labs because of these reasons: (a) poor school facilities and organizations; (b) weak teacher preparation; (c) poor design; (d) cluttered state standards; (e) little representation on state tests; and (f) scarce evidence of what…

John McDonogh Senior High School's challenges, and similar hardship at other public schools that have reopened in New Orleans, were not part of the vision advanced by politicians and educators who saw Hurricane Katrina's destruction as an unprecedented opportunity for schools. To them, Katrina, terrible though it was, had delivered a chance to…

While math has long been regarded as a universal language because of its foundation in numbers, the subject poses nearly as many hurdles for students with limited English as lessons that rely more heavily on reading, many educators say. Malinda Evans spends about an hour and a half each day teaching mathematics to her 5th graders at Navajo…

Texas has had its Robin Hood school financing system in place since 1993, when the legislature adopted the system in response to a state supreme court order to equalize state spending on public schools. Under the arrangement, any district that has taxable property values exceeding $305,000 per student is not allowed to keep all of its property-tax…

After violence in poor immigrant neighborhoods shook the country last year, France responded by focusing more resources on schools facing the most pressing disadvantages. This article discusses on a project dubbed as "ambition reussite" or ambition success, which refocuses the extra resources granted to needy schools under France's…

Since 1990, the privately organized Teach For America has deployed more than 10,000 graduates to disadvantaged schools plagued by teacher shortages. The recruits take part in five-week summer institutes that include four weeks of student teaching. Because states have begun stepping up their requirements for Teach For America participants, most…

Leading national civil rights groups and advocates are increasingly divided over whether the No Child Left Behind Act will improve the academic achievement of poor and minority students, a rift that is generating conversation and concern among a circle of people accustomed to working together. Few civil rights advocates disagree with the law's…

President Bush says that the No Child Left Behind Act is working, pointing to student-achievement results from a single subsection of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and tentative Reading First data. But the evidence available to support his claim is questionable. The data Mr. Bush cited are from just the "long-term…