Homers -- What's going right

CLOSING GAPS: Cheers to Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School for being a state leader in closing the so-called achievement gap among minorities and special needs students. Kennedy earned a 2013 Breaking Barriers to Teaching and Learning Award from the Iowa Department of Education. The school's Latino students scored a 92.3 percent proficiency in reading and math tests, compared to the statewide average of 58.8 percent among Latinos. One-on-one staff work was a big part.

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GRADUATION COUNTS, TOO: University of Iowa football fans are happy for the turnaround season and qualifying for a major New Year's Day bowl game. They also should be glad that the UI football program ranks 16th among the 70 bowl-bound schools in graduation success rate - the percentage of students who graduate in six years or fewer. Iowa's rate is 81 percent, highest among Big Ten Conference bowl qualifiers.

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MORE SHARING: Kudos to the University of Iowa for making make more of its research more widely available via open-access publishing. More sharing of the research, as long as it's adequately peer reviewed, is expected to lead to more innovation nationwide and around the world.