A New Model of School Reform

High rates of teacher turnover plaguing McDowell County were the reason behind a new initiative, Reconnecting McDowell, to reverse the trend. The district began creating a number of incentives to attract teachers, such as student loan support, higher salaries, and providing mentors for younger teachers. Two other efforts—to improve roads and build an apartment complex for younger residents—were stalled due to funding cuts. This article was written on the sixth anniversary of Reconnecting McDowell, and while there have been many challenges, change is slowly coming and people are still optimistic.

Baltimore has dramatically reduced homicides through a multi-pronged approach involving a data-driven Group Violence Reduction Strategy, credible-messenger intervention programs, and aggressive prosecution of illegal gun possession. This has resulted in a record-low murder rate in 2026, with 60 killings recorded through August compared to roughly 220 at the same point four years prior.

The SHARE program, a food recovery initiative created by Toward Zero Waste and Wake County Public Schools, redirects unopened cafeteria items onto accessible carts and fridges for any student to take throughout the school day. SHARE has grown from 8 to 37 schools since the spring of 2025 and recovers roughly 41 food items per school per day, reducing landfill waste and de-stigmatizing food support.

The “Greenest City Action Plan” aimed to reduce the effects of extreme heat by planting 100,000 trees. Shade from trees acts as a thermal buffer during extreme heat and cold and a lack of trees disproportionately impacts low-income communities. The program surpassed its goal by planting trees in parks and along streets, as well as by buying small plots of land to create “pocket parks” with trees providing shade. The city subsidized trees for homeowners, who were banned from cutting down mature, healthy trees on their properties, and ran education programs to increase resident buy-in.

The University of Notre Dame installed three Grind2Energy systems, which aims to reduce the amount of food waste from the campus’ dining halls. The systems process the waste and send it to a local dairy farm where they break down the material to produce biogas that is used to generate electrical power for 1,000 homes each day in Plymouth, Indiana. While not everyone at the university has committed to the sustainability efforts, these systems can be scaled to be used on other college campuses.

The Brazilian city of Recife is tackling violence prevention by focusing on early-childhood education through a program called Urban95. In addition to painting the streets and buildings bright colors, Urban95 offers accessible services like pre- and post-natal services to caregivers and storytelling & play opportunities for young children. The program was rolled out in two communities, and one proved more successful than the other because it partnered with a preexisting organization within the community.

In one Texas school district, bus drivers are trained to watch out for signs of distress and depression in students and report any irregular behavior to the school.

Across the United States, schools, government agencies, and individuals are taking steps to reduce food waste in our schools’ cafeterias. There are collaborations that are trying to change the systemic processes by creating guides on how to conduct food waste audits, providing research frameworks for innovative change, and providing policy guidance. A large effort is underway to change how children think about food, which means bringing them to farms and into kitchens to bring them closer to the process.

Like many institutions of higher education, Marygrove College in Northwest Detroit has faced significant financial strains in recent years. However, perhaps unique to Marygrove, the college is in the process of transforming the community anchor and asset into a more sustainable educational model -- a cradle-to-career approach that includes a new preschool and K-12 school on the campus. "It's a big leap. The hope is that this is going to become an educational model that can be used in urban areas throughout the country," Marygrove's president Elizabeth Burns said.

SOS Children's Villages is a non-profit group that services more than 80,000 kids. Their successful model emphasizes love, family, and relationships, even though the children aren't being raised in a "traditional" family.