Some high-poverty Minn. schools beat the odds, others struggle

Abaas Noor stood in front of two dozen other first-graders at Gideon Pond Elementary in Burnsville and started reading from a book he had written himself. As Abaas told his classmates about his favorite foods and the holidays he celebrates with his family, teacher Elisa Odegard prompted him take a moment to show his classmates the pictures he'd drawn of his family. The students' books about …