In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Brimley is the kind of small town where the students of the month in the elementary school get full-page write-ups in the local newspaper.
There's an Indian reservation just up the road, a couple bars, a gas station, a motel and that's about it.
Brimley Elementary serves two groups that often struggle academically. Of the 300 students, more than half are Native American. Many come from low-income families.
You might be thinking at this point that this story is like so many of the education stories out there, about what's just not working in schools. But Brimley Elementary is different.
At this school, American Indian students are outperforming other Natives in the state. The school as a whole performs above the statewide average for all schools, and on some tests, the low-income students are performing at the same level as kids from wealthier families.
[For more of this story, written by Jennifer Guerra, go to http://www.npr.org/sections/ed...-that-often-struggle]
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