Covers why and how the effects of poverty have to be addressed in classroom teaching and school and district policy. Topics include what poverty does to children's brains and why students raised in poverty are especially subject to stressors that undermine school behavior and performance.

Thirteen-year-old Gracie Phipps encounters eight-year-old Minnie Maude Mudway, who is out alone and trying to find her murdered Uncle Alf's donkey, Charlie. Uncertain where he may be, the children are drawn into an adult world far beyond their imaginings.

"On an autumn day, in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, two boys were born in England, one to a poor family by the name of Canty who lived in Offal Court, not far from London Bridge, and the other to a wealthy and high-placed family by the name of Tudor. Young Tom Canty, unwanted, unloved, began his day-dreaming early in order to forget the petty stealing to which he was forced by his cruel rogue of a father--and the royal Court and young...

Washington Post education reporter Mathews delves into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) and follows the enterprise's founders, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, from their days as young educators in the Teach for America program to heading one of the country's most controversial education programs running today.

It began well, an experiment in techniques to teach high-risk children, poor, minority, children, the life-strategies that will allow them to succeed in life. And, not just succeed, but overcome the odds and become wildly successful. They chose as their model a man who had done it all, Alexander Marcus, a black man who raised himself up from poverty to become one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in America. The imprinting is effective. The children...

Deborah Kenny discusses her life and career as an educator and businesswoman.

On a small Kansas farm in 1890, Christina Willems lovingly shepherds a group of displaced individuals who have come to see the Brambleville Asylum for the Poor as their home. But when a kitchen fire leaves the house uninhabitable, she must find shelter for all in her care, scattering her dear "family." Christina is forced to approach Levi Johnson, a reclusive mill owner, to take in a young blind boy named Tommy Kilgore. Levi agrees with reluctance,...

Belle Teal Harper's entrance into fifth-grade in the early 1960s brings many changes and challenges as her Gran's memory begins to slip, her mom spends long hours away at work, and her class gets two new students, including an African-American boy who is caught in the middle of the fight over desegregation.

Eleven-year-old Maurice must beg for change in order to eat, but when Laura stops to help, they begin a years-long friendship that gives each a new perspective and hope. Includes a list of suggested acts of kindness.