What are acute poverty challenges for culturally disadvantaged school communities across the United States? How do practicing teacher-researchers, pursuing advanced degrees, view this issue and the 21st century skills and dispositions classroom teachers need to foster change? Curious about this topic from the viewpoints of teachers who are researchers, the authors constructed these two questions about poverty challenges for schools and analyzed dissertations from various states. The authors examined the dissertations of many doctoral students in education who are practicing teachers and emerging leaders in K-12 schools whose aspiration is to be in leadership roles with breadth and impact. To guide analysis of selected dissertations, the authors first review the established literature on poverty issues in education. They then examine the dissertations by poverty types--specifically urban and rural--with additional attention on leadership capacity. They next address relevance with respect to the views and findings from dissertations on high-poverty schools. Lastly, they turn to practical considerations for practicing teachers and new ideas and directions for teacher-researchers.