NationSwell
20 February 2019
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Tennessee, United States
Tennessee's Shelby County school district is one of several nationwide experimenting with a weighted-student funding model -- with this concept, each school receives a budget based on both number of students and student needs, such as special education and English language learning curricula: "It’s about student need, and not every student gets the same thing.”
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/a-by-the-e-book-education-for-5-a-month
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
22 May 2013
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For-profit companies are making good private schools available even to Africa’s poor. They can do it – and can do it on an enormous scale – by hiring neighborhood residents to teach, and scripting out every word of every lesson on an e-reader.
http://www.pulitzer.org/files/2012/public_service/assault09.pdf
Kristen A. Graham
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia Media Network)
1 April 2011
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Palm Beach County, Florida has many of the same social problems that Philadelphia has, including “gangs, drugs, and poverty.” However, their school system has managed to keep students safe by employing “safe-school case managers” who build relationships with students, and they offer a youth court that is a system run by students who peer-review cases of unrest. The initiatives in this county has prevented school violence from happening without metal detectors and just two police officers.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/a_new_model_of_school_reform
Jeremy Adam Smith
Greater Good Magazine
21 May 2014
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Social-emotional learning (SEL) is transforming educational systems in Oakland by forming mentor relationships between adults and students. Unlike other models, though, the adults are the ones held accountable.
https://medium.com/bright/a-peek-into-silicon-valley-s-latest-bet-altschool-abf6c6973ecd
Mary Jo Madda
Bright Magazine
1 July 2015
Multi-Media / Under 800 Words
AltSchools use a completely different education system - interconnecting technology and hands on experiments - to help students achieve a higher degree of learning. Students are grouped into small, personalized cohorts so they can be both mentors and mentees for their fellow peers, creating a collaborative learning space for all.
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/big-ideas-in-social-change-2014
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
11 December 2014
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A overview of 2014's Fixes columns - connecting the dots between 60 or so ways that people are trying to change the world.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/clean-water-at-no-cost-just-add-carbon-credits
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
15 November 2010
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The company that manufactures Lifestraw, a water purification device, has found a way to distribute their product to impoverished Kenyan families for free, while still making a profit. In the global carbon credit market, businesses receive carbon credits for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These credits can then be sold to companies who need to offset their carbon emissions, allowing green companies to make a profit off of their small ecological footprint.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/01/busted_unions_and_broken_promi.html
Daniel Simmons-Ritchie
PennLive
12 January 2015
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York schools are considering changing public schools into charter schools, following the example of New Orleans and Michigan, in order to help their crumbling school system. The privatization of these schools can help the facilities become more financially stable, in turn preventing school closures and instability for their students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/upshot/a-national-admissions-office-for-low-income-strivers.html
David Leonhardt
The New York Times
16 September 2014
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Attending college is not always a given option for gifted teenagers from less-than-wealthy backgrounds. National organization QuestBridge creates a way for low-income and minority high-achieving students to go to their dream colleges free of cost.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/a-book-in-every-home-and-then-some
David Bornstein
The New York Times
16 May 2011
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Lack of reading material is not only a third-world problem – many poor families in the United States lack access to and funds for books. A program that helps get books to into the homes of low-income families can boost literacy, and help publishers, too.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/an-inclusive-emerging-economy-with-africa-in-the-lead
David Bornstein
The New York Times
27 November 2014
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In combatting poverty, a giant informal economic system has quietly emerged in Africa. Women participate in micro-finance organizations that loan money in order to allow them to create businesses and become self-managing.
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