A low-income Brooklyn high school where 100 percent of black male students graduate

The ecosystem of D.C. charter schools that has evolved over the last two decades represents a cornucopia of creative and nontraditional approaches to education, in addition to fairly traditional college-prep schools, and is now producing some of the highest graduation rates, college acceptance rates, and average test scores in public schools in the nation.

Through programs across the country, nurses, social workers, or trained mentors offer support to new or expectant parents, imparting skills to help them become better teachers for their children. Through regular home visits with the families, these programs are working to close an achievement gap between rich and poor children that starts as early as just nine months into a child's life.

To enhance learning, Smart Primary School has integrated peer-mentoring in its curriculum through the Buddy program. Each student in the first grade is paired with a fifth grader who tutors and guides the younger one with lessons and activities for the next four years. The program has not just helped them improve their language, communication, and mathematics skills, but also helped enhance the school atmosphere through the trust and bonding students build in the process.

In a Buffalo school district where many students from low-income families struggled with trauma, attendance, and the effects of poverty, a nonprofit initiative called Say Yes to Education is implementing drastic change. The program increases graduation rates for minority students, grants scholarships and admissions guidance to colleges, provides medical and mental health care to under-served students, brings in mentors and after-school programs, and even assists students parents with job-readiness workshops and housing assistance.

Mindfulness and programs, such as Math Guru, designed to address student's anxiety are being implemented in several areas as a way of combatting anxiety and helping students talk through their fears so that it doesn't impede their performance or develop into a more severe issue. Particularly, in places where anxiety and mental illness is high, these areas are looking into the benefits of student mindfulness training.

Despite a deplorably small budget and an ominous lack of support from the government, the Union Public Schools district of Tulsa, Ok is achieving the incredible. Though many of the students are minorities and hail from low-income families, Union boasts exceptional graduation rates and a remarkable STEM-focused curriculum. Their success stems from a comprehensive focus on each individual child within the classroom and beyond, creating a hub for the greater community that includes resources like child care for teen mothers and a student-run garden.

Community colleges were originally designed to be affordable and accessible, yet the myriad pressures on students means that the best intentions often don’t lead to positive results. But the University of Central Florida and its partners are proving a new model called DirectConnect—heavy on individual attention and clear academic goals—that paves a surer path.

Cincinnati is making efforts to close the achievement gap between poor children and more advantaged students by fighting the effects of poverty. Lower Price Hill’s Oyler School is part of a growing national movement to help poor children succeed by meeting their basic health, social, and nutritional needs at school.

Educational nonprofit OneGoal has proven that its model of education helps provide low-income students in Chicago and Houston with the tools needed to pursue a college degree. Now, the nonprofit hopes to improve the college graduation rate in New York City by assisting high school students in understanding the basic techniques to achieve success.

Individualized advice and counseling, boosted by software tools, is helping hundreds more students earn degrees and certificates each year at Walla Walla Community College in Washington.