Algebra on Aisle Six: How a Disused Kmart Became a Bold New High School

A new vocational school in Waco makes a promise to its graduates: A good-paying job. The school focuses on blue-collar skills with a practical edge, ensuring employability.

Half of U.S. farm workers are Hispanic, but few make it to leadership positions. A historically white non-profit, FFA, is creating equal education programs in California to increase leadership opportunities for minorities in agriculture.

Instituto del Progreso Latino, a vocational school in Chicago, is comprehensively helping Latino immigrants living in the U.S. educate themselves, find professional work, and rise above poverty.

To decrease the chance of formerly incarcerated individuals relapsing and ending up back in the prison system, the J.F. Ingram State Technical College in Alabama offers correctional education and vocational programs. This training has aided those incarcerated with life skills for after their release, decreasing the likelihood that they will relapse and increasing the likelihood that they will better adjust to their community.

In Oakland, a non-profit created an industrial arts education school offering youth an alternative classroom for learning where failure is welcomed and everything is hands on, such as welding and forging. The non-profit, which is known as The Crucible, was founded in 1999, and serves more than 8,000 students per year, all managed by close to 100 faculty members.

Kids from low income families miss out on college prep conversations at home. A high school work study program in Chicago is helping these students succeed in college by connecting them with white collar professional mentors and experiences.

An Irish-based company, ALISON, provides free, high-quality e-courses to people around the globe in order to help close the gap between education and workplace skills. Particularly focused on providing access to areas where more traditional forms of education and job training are difficult to get, this approach is helping to change lives and the economy for the better.

When adults want to return to school, they face many challenges including the experience of long waitlists for classes, and poor relevance to the job skills they need for future employment. The Washington state community college system has started a program known as Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) that instead teaches in two parts: academic content and basic soft skills.

While billions of taxpayer dollars are allocated each year to support shelters and social service initiatives, homelessness remains a persistent problem in the U.S. - in 2013, an estimated 610,000 people slept without shelter every night. All over the country, people are building "tiny homes" to give to the homeless, providing them with shelter, a bathroom, and a kitchen for less then the cost of a shelter.

A private high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is mimicking a college campus as part of an effort to help kids succeed in college. By trusting the students and giving them autonomy they have also reduced bad behavior.