A pressing debate in the conversation about American schools is how much blame to place on poverty in how much, and how well, students can learn.

For teachers, the question is not only a mechanical one guiding the kinds of tools and techniques they'll use in the classroom but a question that can impact their careers. As school districts move to evaluate teachers based on the achievement of their students, some teachers fear they're being blamed for things they cannot control. Poverty is at the top of that list.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, in a speech to the National Urban League this summer, called poverty a terrible obstacle, but one that couldn't become an excuse. I suspect he was preaching to the choir. The history of racism and unequal opportunity in this country means most African Americans can still look back a generation or two and find abject poverty. My parents were middle-class thanks to the U.S. military. But my grandparents were day laborers and their parents sharecroppers. It took a huge leap past the obstacles to reach the days of homeownership and professional jobs.

Flash forward to 2011. The United States Department of Agriculture will release updated figures next week for the number of children going hungry in America. The annual Kids Count report from the Annie E Casey Foundation shows the child poverty rate in the U.S. grew by 18% between 2000 and 2009. A recent Gallup survey shows nearly one in every four children are ‘food insecure,’ meaning they don’t have consistent access to the food they need to live active, healthy lives.

Poverty is a reality, but one to tackle aggressively. I like this Website's tools, both technology and traditional, for teaching students challenged by poverty.