A fit-for-purpose, functional program is the vehicle that guarantees the relevance of an education system by ensuring the sustainability of the society. Failure of a program to be relevant has the potential to cause crisis in a society. This basic qualitative research study explored the experiences of the beneficiaries of a skills development…

Current U.S. policy initiatives to improve the U.S. education system, including No Child Left Behind, test-based evaluation of teachers, and the promotion of competition are misguided because they either deny or set to the side a basic body of evidence documenting that students from disadvantaged households on average perform less well in school…

A chronicle of the success of a small Catholic school on Long Island, N.Y. in overcoming poverty, race, and language for the 65 male students it has served in grades 5-8 for eight years. The authors posit that the secret of the school's success resides in creating goals, agency and pathways for success in its students, creating a climate of hope…

Promising approaches in both policy and practice have emerged that should serve as beacons to guide professionals as they renew their determination to ensure fairness for all races and ethnicities in child serving systems. Indeed, when those systems are equitably treating children of color, then all children will benefit. The Center for Juvenile…

This article analyses the new educational mandate for Latin America, exploring its repercussions on the design and development of certain educational policies. In particular, it concentrates both on the anti-poverty educational agenda (at a global level) and on targeted educational policies (at a regional, national and local level), analyzing, on…

This study examines the role of language in reducing poverty in Botswana through adult-education programs. Because language is the medium through which human beings communicate and grow intellectually and socially, it should form the basis of any discussion involving the relation between development and education. In order best to respond to…

This article considers the proposed federal Youth Education and Employment Initiative which targets federal funds to those high schools with the lowest achievement and highest poverty levels, to help build work experience programs and to upgrade student skills. New Jersey Education Association recommendations on secondary curriculum improvement…

As part of a commitment to eliminate child poverty, the British government has established Sure Start programs across the country. Sure Start programs are very similar to U.S. Early Head Start initiatives; their stated aim is to improve the health and well-being of disadvantaged families and children before and from birth. The article describes…