Summer food gap. During the school year, 21.4 million students receive free lunches, but during the summer that number drops down to 3.5 million. The challenge is figuring out where the kids are and encouraging them to come to specific locations for their free lunch so that they are well-fed and ready to learn in the fall. (NBC News)
Stay cool. Check out this list of the top ten greenest schools in the country. (Sierra)
Stimulating conversations. New York City released a report that looks at 12 of the city’s teacher preparation programs and their effectiveness. The report found that half of the teachers who came from these programs were in the highest need license fields (special education, math, science, or English as a second language) and had a high retention rate after three years. (Education Week)
Increasing mobility and the American dream. Fareed Zakaria looks into why social mobility in America is so low and how to help low-income students achieve the American dream. Providing help to these at-risk families could be more useful to students than offering specific enrichment programs. Another problem, he writes, is since education funding is tied to local property tax, students in poorer neighborhoods receive less education funding than those in richer neighborhoods. (Washington Post)