Iowa

"If the Iowa City Community School District passes the proposed plan to diversify schools, it will join more than 80 districts across the nation that have responded to research on student achievement by giving more students the chance to attend mixed-income schools. Research shows that while students' own socioeconomic backgrounds have a big effect on their achievement, so do the socioeconomic backgrounds of their peers. Numerous sources - including the famous 1966 Coleman Report, data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and a 2010 meta-analysis by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte - show that poor students at mixed-income schools do better than poor students at high-poverty schools."

"Clearly the problems that create pockets of poverty are larger than the school district can handle by itself. Educators can help students and families learn to better their situations, but such transformations won't happen simply because students are forced to attend a different school. Such transformations happen when students learn to read, to do their multiplication tables, to stay fit and active, and to love music and art."

"Iowa City Community School Board members soon will vote on a new diversity policy for the district. If approved, the document will set benchmarks to more evenly spread poverty around the district. Faced with geographic, economic and political challenges, though, how school leaders would obtain those goals isn't totally clear."

"Learning to take turns or to identify the colors of the rainbow may not sound like big business, but experts say early childhood education has the potential to become the state's No. 1 economic development tool. Researchers have found that investing in the early education of low-income children, in particular, has produced positive results. For every dollar spent on such programs, studies have found a return of $4 to $9."

"Minority students - as well as children who live in poverty, are learning English or have special needs - continue to fall behind their peers on state assessments, data show. Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass on Tuesday directed officials at all of Iowa's public schools to adopt an instruction and assessment method called Response to Intervention in an effort to boost student scores. Effective teachers and rigorous standards are also crucial to improving performance, he said."

"Parents' lack of education often translates into poverty for their children and increases the likelihood that their children will struggle in school, research shows."