Massachusetts

"But receiving a full scholarship to an Ivy League school, while a transformative experience for the nation's poorest students, is only the first hurdle. Once on campus, students report feelings of loneliness, alienation, and plummeting self-confidence. Having grant money for tuition and fees and holding down jobs, too, as virtually all of them do, doesn't translate to having the pocket money to keep up with free-spending peers. And some disadvantaged students feel they don't have a right to complain to peers or administrators about anything at all; they don't want to be perceived as ungrateful."

"Many aspects of the economic picture have improved since the height of the recession in late 2008. Yet the number of children living in families categorized as poor or near-poor remains stubbornly high, recently released figures from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at Columbia University show. "

"The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education now says instruction provided during the breakfast period can be included in structured learning time, and child nutrition advocates say the decision could turn things around when it comes to reaching low-income children with a healthy breakfast at school."

"FUEL an acronym for the organization's old name, Families United in Educational Leadership is a Boston-based college savings program that matches within a certain range the amount each family saves for a student's education. But it does much more than that, teaching low-income families many of whom are immigrants how to navigate the higher-education process, from finding the right school to paying for it. Through a series of monthly workshops, the program, which partners with schools and community organizations in Lynn, Chelsea, and Boston, focuses on helping the entire family, not just the student."

"Across the state, too many of our students are not succeeding in college, while the job market increasingly demands college degrees. Three quarters of the new jobs created by 2020 will require post-high school education, but only 56 percent of Massachusetts public four-year college students graduate from college in six years. That is a mismatch with serious consequences for our students, their families and continued economic growth in our state."

"The United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley will award just over $34 million over the next year to support local nonprofits that help students prepare for school, work to lower high school dropout rates, and provide job-training and other aid to low-income families."