DesMoinesRegister.com: "Few schools match Madison Elementary in Muscatine in closing the achievement gap between white and minority students.
It won a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award last fall - recognition that 100 percent of fourth-graders had scored as proficient in math and 97 percent in reading.
Other schools should copy Madison's commitment.
Outside, the unassuming blond-brick school looks its 50-plus years. Inside, the combination of high expectations and targeted strategies produces results.
No excuses are made for poverty or language barriers. More than half of youngsters take free or reduced-price lunch, including some who live in motel rooms. About a third of 236 students are Latino. Thirty-three children are learning English as a second language.
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