This NYC elementary school wants to serve everyone, including kids with complex disabilities

A progressive funding model has been a boon to schools in Berlin’s poorer neighborhoods, which receive a baseline of staff and resources. But schools in poorer neighborhoods face a myriad of struggles that additional resources haven’t been able to quell, due to the deep socioeconomic disparities between the home neighborhoods of wealthy and poor students. However, one elementary school seems to have succeeded in desegregating students by offering a choice of academic tracks.

A nonprofit organization, the Internationals Network for Public Schools, delivers a first-class education to the children of illegal immigrants, helping to break the cycle of poverty and provide them a path to advance in life.

The Teaching at the Right Level program, or TaRL, provides tailored lessons in reading and math to primary students in Borno, grouping them by their level rather than their grade or age for engaging activities designed to build their literacy and numeracy skills. When it was first piloted, the number of students able to read a simple paragraph grew from 14 percent to 45 percent, while the number of students able to complete subtraction problems grew from 11 percent to 59 percent.

To reach students who had stopped attending school, Nigeria set up “non-formal learning centers” in some states where children could attend lessons three days a week in both Hausa and English, giving them the foundational knowledge needed to reenter the public school system. Between 2016 and 2021, more than 31,000 children transitioned from non-formal learning centers to public primary schools.

Medical schools and public health programs have shifted some of their practices in an effort to attract more Black students, such as by removing GRE requirements and recruiting more Black faculty, and these schools have seen an influx of applications during the pandemic. One example is Brown University's Health Equity Scholars program, which offers tuition support, a paid research assistantship, and formalized mentorship to a diverse cohort each year.

Data Lead Africa offers a training program specifically designed to help prepare Deaf people for careers in technology and data analysis. Students are provided laptops with assistive technology and sign language interpreters who facilitate the training.

After Brooklyn's District 15 replaced selective admissions with a lottery system, economic segregation in sixth grade decreased by 55 percent and racial segregation decreased by 38 percent compared with the previous year. Though challenges remain in creating truly inclusive school cultures, parents and educators say community attitudes are shifting around what makes for a "good" or desirable school.

In an attempt to provide ease of movement to girl students while playing, Valayanchirangara primary school introduced "gender-neutral" uniforms for all its 756 students that eliminated the earlier requirement for them to wear skirts. It has since inspired several other schools in Kerala to similarly change their uniforms and snowballed a movement, supported by the state's education minister no less, where more such measures to promote gender equality in schools are being encouraged and adapted.

Despite segregation being deemed unconstitutional, nationally, many schools remain segregated along racial and class lines. Integrate Schools, a national grassroots movement, is focused on integrating schools.

A school district in New Mexico is finding success with a dual language education program. A regular school day for an elementary school student in a Gadsen school district school might entail reviewing their math or history in Spanish or English, depending on the assigned language that week. “Our bilingual programs are not just for English learners, they’re for all of our students," Mayra Valtierrez, the director of language and culture at the New Mexico Public Education Department, said. "That’s something that’s unique to our state."