Despite comprising a third of the population, poor and minority students are drastically underrepresented in gifted education programs across the nation, even if their academic performance is on-par with their white peers. Federal Way Public Academy in Washington has re-examined its methods for finding academically talented kids and is changing the numbers.

High school graduation rates, especially for Black and Hispanic students, are alarmingly low, which led North High School in Minneapolis to rebuild the school model and foster a dramatic increase in the number of students graduating. Through daily advisory periods with teachers, a community of peer support, close contact between teachers and parents, and outside guidance, the school has seen overwhelming improvement.

In a globalized world, increased focus has been put on expanding the frequently under-studied global competency component of American Student's education. By integrating lessons on this type of global thinking and knowledge into common courses, educators across the country are attempting to remedy this lack of global competency.

The development of the ACE score in the late 1990s revealed that the causes behind many serious social issues-- from violence to graduation rates to poverty-- were rooted in trauma and stress experienced by the individuals enacting them. The Family Policy Council based in Washington State examined the connections between social problems and related issues and found that community networks, armed with this new ACE information, provided valuable knowledge on how to improve conditions across a spectrum of issues, even with modest resources.