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"About 34 percent of Oshkosh high schoolers come from low-income families, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. In 2010, 26 percent of low-income high school students had not obtained a regular high school diploma within four years.'These students need more from us, not less.'"

"Nearly two dozen LAUSD schools will get an infusion of $2 million to help them cope with the loss next year of federal money used to teach impoverished students, officials said Friday."

"That so-called achievement gap between more-affluent students and their low-income and minority counterparts is at the heart of state efforts to improve academic performance, acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf said Wednesday."

"It is a Federally Qualified Health Center, which allows it to receive higher reimbursement rates for Medicaid patients and compete for additional grant funding. To earn FQHC status, a clinic must prove that it provides health care to a medically underserved area. More than half of the residents along Pioneer Drive, the area's main street, live below the federal poverty level. A new facility will allow for health education on ways to manage and prevent disorders, such as diabetes and heart disease, that are prevalent in the low-income area, Smith said.

"Newly released standardized test scores for Garden State students show overall improvement, with low-income and minority students making steady gains on high school exams. But state education officials said the improvement doesn't amount to a meaningful closing of the so-called achievement gap in New Jersey's public schools."

"Imagine a law that would enable low-income, academically at-risk children to receive improved educational opportunities, save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year and improve public schools."

"Gov. Pat Quinn is pushing state lawmakers to raise the age students can legally drop out of school from 17 to 18, a move aimed at improving graduation rates but one that local educators say won't accomplish much unless the state also provides the money to keep at-risk students in school."

"So for elementary and middle schools, the rankings are based on student performance and improvement on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. For high schools, they are based half on FCAT scores and half on other factors such as high school graduation rates and student success in advanced classes. But these rankings concern some educators, who say it does not take into account how factors such as poverty can impact students' academic performance."

"More than half the students come from poor households, but the trappings of high unemployment and poverty have not slowed them in school. Wells Academy was named Ohio's No. 1 public elementary school in the state's first school ranking based on student test scores."

"According to the New Jersey Education Law Center, low-income students make up 70 percent of students in the former Abbott districts, but only 27 percent of enrollment statewide. The state's 31 poorest districts -- the so-called Abbotts, which receive additional state aid as a result of a series of New Jersey Supreme Court rulings starting in 1985 -- also serve more than half of the state's black and Hispanic students."

"The need is great in this region, which has a high proportion of elderly and low-income residents who can't afford to pay a tax preparer or who may risk missing refunds doing taxes themselves, said Linda Ranagan, site coordinator for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program through the United Way of Cumberland County"

"A shelter with 16 beds for homeless youths could be completed in two months, Northwest Youth Services Executive Director Riannon Bardsley said, if the agency gets the money it needs to finish the work."