Imagine that. Kids growing up in households where money is tight and the challenges are many, are posting academic gains when classroom resources are intensely focused on their needs. Meet Kingswood Elementary in Cary, which has earned national recognition for its work. What the school is doing isn’t rocket science, yet there are many in the Triangle who believe kids must be sitting next to a child from a higher-income household in order to succeed. Hogwash. From the Cary News:

Kingswood’s teachers have created academic success by breaking students into smaller groups and spending extra time with those who need more help.

“If a teacher needs to help a student who’s struggling, another teacher will cover the rest of her class,” said Kim Zeugner, a math coach partially salaried by the Title I program. “We help each other all the time.”

In teacher Casey Byrne’s fifth-grade class last week, she engaged three students in a discussion about a reading assignment while several other small groups of students completed exercises on laptop computers.

Students weren’t just sitting in desks listening but engaging in the lessons.

“Less teacher talk, more student involvement,” Case said. “We’re real big on that.”