The Neonatal Network, a model program in Dallas for interagency service coordination for primarily indigent, minority, very-low-birth-weight infants and their families is described. The Neonatal Network has been an effective service delivery coordination system and training mechanism that should be applicable and easily replicable in other…

Since the early 1960s, Project Follow Through has used psychologists to develop effective educational models for economically disadvantaged children. The successful utilization of psychologists has implications for two central issues: roles for such professionals in social intervention research, and future uses of planned variation and sponsorship…

Describes an elementary school six years after it adopted the Comer process, an educational philosophy promoting ongoing collaboration among parents, teachers, and administrators to do what is best for student learning and development. Consensus whenever possible and open expression of feelings and issues builds professionalism and community.…

Examines elements of programs that have been successful at changing long-term outcomes among disadvantaged children and their families: delivering a wide array of services, building relationship of trust and respect, dealing with children as part of a family, and responding to those most at risk. Suggests ways to overcome barriers to multiplying…

Early Assessment for Exceptional Potential of Young Minority and/or Economically Disadvantaged Students is a project which used portfolio assessment to identify exceptional potential in primary-level children and develop instructional plans. The project determined universal identifiers of exceptional potential and taught teachers to recognize them…

This article proposes a funded school-based allowance and savings program targeted at economically disadvantaged students with poor educational outcomes to help poor children develop less present-biased time preference patterns so as to increase student effort and skills acquisition, avoid the pitfalls that pave the path of adolescence and move…

Project Promise, designed to provide leadership opportunities to middle school students from low socioeconomic environments, supplemented in-school curricular options with a home visitor. The home visitor served as a liaison between students' families and the school and assisted families in obtaining social services and information about career…

Examines how the concepts of service and community might be made to serve the interests of those who are the heart of urban schools: students, their families, and neighborhood residents. The article introduces a model of community schools that is oriented to the inner-directed development of inner-city neighborhoods. (GR)

The Javits 7+ Gifted and Talented Program (Community School District 18, Brooklyn, New York) was designed to provide an opportunity for socioeconomically disadvantaged children to receive intensive school-based activities that would prepare them for gifted education programs. Teachers assessed students using Howard Gardner's concept of multiple…

Community-based medical education is key to training physicians to work in needy fields such as outpatient care and health care for the medically underserved. Describes the disadvantages of traditional medical school curricula and presents sample community health curricula now being used. Suggests ways to increase medical students' awareness of…

Provides a critical perspective on service learning, and raises issues about focusing on the growth of students, which often ignores the service recipients and fails to ask how service is affecting the communities in which it is being performed. A new service-learning paradigm is offered to overcome some perceived inconsistencies in the existing…

Six articles provide an overview of the multiple approaches to evaluating the problems of homelessness and introduce the challenges of evaluating interventions for the homeless. The first part focuses on research about homelessness, and the second part describes major demonstration programs and their evaluations. (SLD)

This article describes the development of a multifaceted evaluation strategy to assess the effects of guaranteed subsidized child care on the subsequent attainment of welfare independence and aggregate welfare expenditures for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Advantages of a multimethod approach are discussed. (SLD)

Describes 17 family education programs considered innovative and promising. The programs selected target low-income families with children between three and eight and are linked with public schools. All of them work with parents to enhance children's cognitive development and academic achievement. Summarizes methods used in recruitment, staffing,…

Reviews 36 studies of both model demonstration projects and large-scale public programs to examine the long-term effects of these programs on children from low-income families. Results show early childhood programs can produce significant short-term benefits on intelligence quotient, and important long-term benefits on school achievement, grade…