Against all odds: Educating Nigeria's Fulani children amidst adversity

To better serve Black students, Joe Shoemaker Elementary School uses “equity cohorts.” Teachers select four to seven students of color who are reading below grade level and then focus on building relationships with them, helping to nurture their social and academic skills. Over the past two years, they’ve seen improved test scores and reading levels among students who participated.

The Destiny Trust performs outreach in slum settlements and encampments to connect homeless children with residential housing and get them enrolled in school, sometimes via placing them in boarding schools. Through fundraising and partnering with other groups such as religious organizations, the nonprofit has sponsored the education of nearly 3,000 children since launching in 2012.

In Wyoming, the state's school funding model recaptures money from affluent districts and reallocates it to districts with fewer resources. This unique and heralded system has allowed Wyoming to keep the doors of its rural, one-room rural schoolhouses, which often are a key part of a communities' fabric, open.

The Philadelphia School District is working to integrate trauma-informed teaching and care into its strategy. It has partnered with Lakeside Global Initiative and the Institute for Family Professionals to offer trainings and classes that help educators understand how trauma affects learning, and what changes can be made to help those experiencing trauma learn. While over 850 teachers have taken the trainings, they are costly, and looking forward may be hard to sustain.

To mitigate the pernicious effects of poverty on student success, nonprofit 'Blocks of Hope' in Colorado aims to provide both educational and social services to students and their families, with the goal of leveling the playing field.

How can rural African children learn to read when there are no books in their languages? Save the Children helps kids to create their own books, creating a homemade library for their village.

The Boys' Club of New York addresses the mental health crisis among at-risk boys by providing structured programming, peer mentorship from alumni staff, and a culture of belonging across three clubhouses and roughly 2,500 members.

To help tackle gender-based violence, some schools in Uganda are shifting the focus of violence prevention efforts to focus on educating boys around harmful behavior rather than solely teaching girls how to stay safe. Both teachers and parents say they have seen behavioral improvements among students who have participated in programs emphasizing respect and gender equality.

Schools in Adamawa State are increasing the number of female teachers, which is inherently increasing the number of female students attending school. Previously, over 50% of girls in the area had not been in school, or dropped out, but with the increase of female teachers, the number of girls in school has dramatically increased.

The Tent to School Education Initiative mounts makeshift classrooms in communities where students would normally have to travel long distances to attend classes, leaving them vulnerable to potential safety concerns. In one nomadic settlement, volunteer teachers with the program have helped 70 percent of students improve their numeracy skills, while 65 percent have been able to build reading competencies.