As state seeks literacy answers, small rural schools offer clues to student success

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.

Delaware has been working to make sure that all college-ready graduates, regardless of socioeconomic status, make it to college. With financial reasons standing in the way of many qualified students, the state has worked on multiple levels to make this a possibility.

The overall graduation rate for black male students in New York City was 58 percent in 2014 - student retention rates are equally poor. But one school achieved a 100% on-time graduation rate last year, motivating their students with a student-founded, student-sustained 'fraternity'.

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.

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.

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.

As kids and teachers head back to school, we wanted to turn away from questions about politics and unions and money and all the regular school stuff people argue about, and turn to something more optimistic — an emerging theory about what to teach kids.

Low-income students are always looking for ways to finance their education. A new system using “human capital contracts” to pay for higher education isn’t as scary as it sounds.

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.

Teaching reading skills to children early is crucial, especially with respect to their educational success later in life. School systems are switching reading programs to help underachieving students have one on one time with a tutor.