'Earn while you learn:' Co-op programs gain appeal amid rising cost of living

A novel way to help young men growing up in communities in which concentrated poverty, violence and unemployment are well-documented barriers to health and longevity: male youth of color are trained to be the emergency response team to help stabilize street victims before doctors or nurses begin procedures.

Delaware has been working to make sure that all college-ready graduates, regardless of socioeconomic status, make it to college. With financial reasons standing in the way of many qualified students, the state has worked on multiple levels to make this a possibility.

Attending college is not always a given option for gifted teenagers from less-than-wealthy backgrounds. National organization QuestBridge creates a way for low-income and minority high-achieving students to go to their dream colleges free of cost.

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.

For young people, learning the social norms of the office is crucial for survival in the new economy. Year Up is an organization that is unusually successful at preparing young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds for jobs in big companies.

Many qualified students lack the motivation to follow through attending college due to a lack of peer support. A highly successful U.S. program sends great inner-city students to elite colleges in groups – one key to graduation.

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.

There are many other adults beyond teachers who regularly interact with children — and who are often overlooked as potential contributors to the educational mission. Hartsville, South Carolina, uses school bus drivers as a resource and extra set of eyes to observe how students are doing.

A overview of 2014's Fixes columns - connecting the dots between 60 or so ways that people are trying to change the world.

Bangladesh has often struggled maintaining safety in the workplace. But a new effort ensures that Bangladeshi workers are trained about how to better follow security and safety restrictions to create a safer working environment.