Finland found a proven way to combat bullying. Here's what it'll take to make it work in the US

A panoply of responses to poverty has emerged to address poverty in the United States and abroad. The responses share in three key tactics: Measuring impact, paying for success, and collaboration.

Students and teachers in the Czech Republic are learning what it takes to reduce bullying in their schools. Elementary school Lada Jelasicova students reported well below the national average as having experienced bullying. Administrators saw a reduction in bullying after they added assistant teachers to classrooms and got police and social workers involved whenever there was a serious aggression — in order to demonstrate a rapid response. Teachers are also attending training to break down their own biases and incorporate anti-bullying into their curriculum.

School districts in Pennsylvania are overhauling traditional reading curricula in favor of new neuroscience research that shows how the human brain processes sounds and symbols. The program is time-intensive, requiring teachers to learn a new way of teaching literacy, but has shown early promising results.

As part of an anti-bullying campaign in 1,400 Toronto elementary schools, teachers are bringing infants to the front of the classroom. Instructors ask students to identify the babies' feelings and emotions with the goal of increasing empathy and emotional awareness within the classroom. "A baby is a great unifier... Whatever there different friendship groups or backgrounds, they all share this love for Naomi [the featured baby]." Studies have shown that the program reduces aggression and violence in participating students.

Founded by Silicon Valley veterans and funders in 2007 to serve the world's poorest students and most under-resourced teachers, Bridge International Academies now operates 600 low-cost private schools in Kenya, Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda, and India. In Bridge's model, teachers read scripted lessons developed abroad directly from their tablets. While supporters say Bridge is delivering an otherwise unavailable service, at scale, and is seeing improved scores and teacher attendance, critics fear Bridge takes the human element out of learning, strips teachers of agency and fails to teach critical thinking skills.

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.

A school in New Zealand took the rules out of recess. They found that when the kids were mentally engaged during play time activities they were less likely to have problems, such as bullying within the classroom.

Often social programs at schools fail because they are not implemented fully or over a long enough period. One school in Philadelphia attributes their success in decreasing violence to having a long-term principal, a stable teaching force, and formal training in anti-violence programs.

Akshar Forum accepts plastic waste as tuition and pays students in points for vocational training and peer teaching. This has reduced both plastic pollution and school drop-out rates while equipping students with marketable skills—a model now being replicated across 100 government schools in the state.

Schools across the U.S. are implementing geothermal heating and cooling systems, significantly lowering energy bills, cutting reliance on fossil fuels, and freeing up funds for campus improvements and teacher salaries—though ongoing success hinges heavily on federal clean energy tax incentives.