With National Volunteer Week around the corner (April 15-21), the Points of Light Foundation is shining a light on the people and causes that are making a difference and inspiring other people to give back.

Though students at Thurgood Marshall Academy see the recent March for Our Lives rally as a symbolic moment, they know that long-term change takes time. After all, their school gets its name from the man who helped make school segregation illegal and challenged the separate but equal doctrine on which it stood for more than half a century.

In Wintley Phipps’ remarkable career as a vocal artist, he has sung in front of six U.S. presidents, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Oprah. As a minister, he’s delivered messages of equality and hope in almost every continent on the globe.

Families receiving food stamps get their benefits once a month. A few weeks later, kids’ test scores tick up. The pattern, revealed by a new study of thousands of North Carolina families, suggests that the additional access to healthy food helps students do better in school.

For many young men, joining a gang is their best option to survive. That’s why Chicago CRED works to provide “a pathway from the streets and into the legal economy” to combat gun violence in the city.

What should teachers do if they suspect a student might be homeless? What about non-educators? Better yet, what can governors and legislators do to fight youth homelessness on a broad scale in their states and communities?

America’s Promise Alliance is honoring Mr. and Mrs. Bradley for their work with a Promise of America award on April 18, and Gilbert currently serves as an America’s Promise youth trustee. In this Q&A, Gilbert asks the Bradleys about the challenges and rewards of philanthropy, their commitment to service, and what they see changing in education that excites them.

Alex Paschal, Manager of Community Engagement for ImpactTulsa, is “motivated by the vision of ensuring all students are guaranteed a high-quality education and a pathway to thrive.” That’s why Paschal and the team at ImpactTulsa are helping more students finish high school prepared with the resources they need for postsecondary success.

"Parents are their children’s first teacher,” NAZ President and CEO Sondra Samuels says. “An army of empowered parents are also the fuel needed to put pressure on systems to remove barriers to their families’ overall success and their children’s academic and life success."

Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) provides children’s care teams with the tools and knowledge they need to better care for children, as well as a common language for addressing trauma.

What can states do to ensure that every student receives an effective education? What does a real commitment to equity look like? A panel of experts tackled these questions in their discussion of a new report, States Leading for Equity: Promising Practices Advancing the Equity Commitments. Here are the takeaways.

More than half of young people say they have experienced some form of sexual harassment in high school, yet schools often report zero instances of harassment—a figure experts say is “statistically impossible.” Why the disconnect between the data?

Within the national debate on how to increase college graduates, a key actor is missing—the families of those students being served. Usually, the families are perceived as ‘obstacles’ in helping first generation students access and complete a post-secondary education.

Young people across the country are improving media representation for people of color, promoting literacy education, speaking out against bullying, and much more. In honor of Black History Month, we compiled a list of seven African-American young leaders who are raising their voices, advocating for their causes, and fighting for a better future.

Here’s a troubling fact: students with disabilities are 50 percent more likely to be chronically absent—and research shows that chronic absenteeism is a better predictor of whether a student will drop out than test scores. A recent webinar offered tips for how educators can help students with disabilities overcome these odds and succeed in the classroom.

So far, this year’s State of the State addresses reveals that, when it comes to education, leaders across the country will continue to prioritize workforce development. Here’s a look at five governors who specifically mentioned high school graduation rates in their speeches and how they plan to improve education for young people in their states.