How a school for students with dyslexia is changing the game for struggling readers

Research says that bilingual kids reap significant benefits from reading in their primary language. One nonprofit working in Rwanda, Congo, Haiti, Cambodia, and Mongolia provides digital books in students' strongest language and recruits local writers to create age-level books with local context: "It's not just a matter of translating materials," a professor at Columbia's Teachers College notes. "It's a matter of valorizing the home culture and language of the learners."

Students in a small town in Michigan are outperforming their peers statewide. Over half of the students are American Indian and many come from low-income families. Because the town's reservation can't be taxed, the school receives additional federal funding. And teachers have put it to good use - by hiring more staff, decreasing class sizes, and frequently evaluating students' progress. One fourth grader offered her own theory: "Well, everyone's accepted here for who they are, no matter if they're Irish, Native, African American or just French."

A Mumbai school located in a remodeled shipping container meets kids on the street where they are at. Signal School results from a collaborative effort between the city and a non-profit, and focuses on bringing education to migrant children, so that they are less likely to be forced into child labor or street begging. Signal School does more than just teach, it also provides meals, works with families to change the cultural perspective that education is an amenity for the privileged, and helps migrant families find permanent housing.

An elementary school in Detroit works to give low-income students the resources and education they need to be successful. From supplying children with uniforms and breakfast to cleaning the school to provide a better work environment, teachers and staff address the underlying affects of poverty in the classroom.

In California, half of school-aged children are the children of immigrants. Among many other initiatives in the city, a community-wide training project in Fresno aims to improve how adults in the city work with students of immigrant families. One of the challenges of the renewed push for a bilingual approach - finding sufficient bilingual teachers after years of the state's English-only education policies.

School on Wheels is a program serving children in a refugee camp along the U.S.-Mexico border by transforming an old school bus into a space for learning. The school can fit up to 80 children, all of whom are waiting for asylum in the U.S. It is run by the California-based nonprofit, Yes We Can, and it currently has 3 teachers and over 30 students. The school aims to teach the children values like love, happiness, and being a good person while they are at a particularly tumultuous time in their lives.

A latchkey program staffed by licensed professionals provides before- and after-school programs for elementary students if their parents cannot make the scheduled times to drop them off or pick them up from school.

A latchkey program made possible by a variety of community support provides a place for elementary students to be cared for before and after school if their parents cannot drop them off or pick them up at the designated times.

With an influx of COVID relief money, the Russellville school district began hiring and certifying more local, Spanish-speaking staff to help teach English language learners. Districtwide, the percentage of students who met their language proficiency goals increased from 46% in 2019 to 61% in 2022.

The International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards trains employees in the tourism industry to become autism certified, ensuring they know how to care for neurodivergent youth and their families when they’re at places like restaurants or theme parks. Several of these businesses have practices in place like offering noise-canceling headphones, access to quiet rooms or even hosting autism awareness weekends, helping to make the city the first Autism Certified City in the world.