Too few teachers? This Indianapolis school district is growing its own

Harsville, South Carolina is trying to better its educational program. But first it must change the standard of living in the town to provide greater examples of success for the children to follow.

Lack of reading material is not only a third-world problem – many poor families in the United States lack access to and funds for books. A program that helps get books to into the homes of low-income families can boost literacy, and help publishers, too.

How can rural African children learn to read when there are no books in their languages? Save the Children helps kids to create their own books, creating a homemade library for their village.

For-profit companies are making good private schools available even to Africa’s poor. They can do it – and can do it on an enormous scale – by hiring neighborhood residents to teach, and scripting out every word of every lesson on an e-reader.

Teaching reading skills to children early is crucial, especially with respect to their educational success later in life. School systems are switching reading programs to help underachieving students have one on one time with a tutor.

As kids and teachers head back to school, we wanted to turn away from questions about politics and unions and money and all the regular school stuff people argue about, and turn to something more optimistic — an emerging theory about what to teach kids.

Research in the U.S. suggests that a small class size is not enough but in combination with teacher training it leads to a change in achievement.

Volunteers with the Annual Status of Education Report test children's math and reading skills in villages across India. While 96 percent of Indian children are in school, ASER reveals that many of them are not receiving a real education. "Learning camps", an initiative called Read India, and grouping children by ability, not age, are helping bridge the gap.

Kepler University in Rwanda reduces the cost of a university education by hiring teachers based on their willingness to innovate — not necessarily their expertise — and by blending online and in-classroom learning. Students receive the equivalent of a college diploma and job training in order to facilitate a possible rise out of poverty.

As school poverty rates goes up, learning and test scores fall. At Gildo Ray elementary school in Washington state uses a teaching method called director or explicit instruction, in which children learn from a structured approach to teaching with teacher-guided practice. Gildo Ray’s test scores in math and reading are among the highest in the state.