Backers of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) based their support on the belief that teachers and administrators primarily were responsible for low levels of achievement by America's poor. But this one-sided view is both inadequate and unsupported by the evidence. The author argues that harsh social policies and the pernicious effects of poverty are more…

Provides a descriptive analysis of the recent history of family policy and argues that the United States, within its cultural context, inhibits the development of a national family policy. The final section provides an analysis of the visionary changes needed to develop a national family policy. (GR)

This review paper, prepared for the forthcoming Russell Sage volume Changing Poverty, considers the ability of different education policies to improve the learning outcomes of low-income children in America. Disagreements on this question stem in part from different beliefs about the problems with our nation's public schools. In our view there…

The retirement or earnings test provision of the Social Security Program is part of a debate over the future direction of the entire system. The current high rates of unemployment and inflation necessitating supplemental income for some older people may well influence the debate. (Author/AJ)

Argues that to understand today's homeless crisis one must examine the policy decisions that brought it about. The paper explores that policy history, explains how it resulted in the series of dramatic demographic changes that have changed the nature of homelessness today, and suggests a comprehensive approach to lifting families out of…

Explores the greater emphasis on the role of education in federal social and economic policy and how it came about. It is suggested that changes in the relationship between class, race, and the state in the 1930s and 1940s set in motion a dynamic that made education the chief instrument of social reform two decades later. (GR)

This report provides a snapshot of homelessness in America as it exists today, and as it can be expected to exist in the future. By further dismantling the safety net that protects many families living on the edge, policymakers will ensure that the numbers of homeless and destitute families increase, creating a new era of homelessness dominated by…

This paper examines traditional regulatory concerns of urban educators in administering Chapter 1 programs, tracks the impact of a recent deregulatory provision (school-wide projects) enacted in 1988 and other amendments to Chapter 1 legislation, and discusses the reform's effectiveness given the increasingly severe problems facing many urban…

This executive summary describes a study that finds nearly every school in the Great Lakes states is threatened to fail the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements mandated by the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act. NCLB holds schools and districts accountable for student achievement on state standardized tests and schools…

Congressional hearings on American children and youth living in crisis were conducted in an effort to determine how the needs of these young people can assume their proper place in national priorities. A three-pronged strategy was suggested by chairman Edward Kennedy: (1) more investment in cost-effective programs that work (for example, Head…

This study finds that nearly every school in the Great Lakes states is threatened to fail the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements mandated by the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act. NCLB holds schools and districts accountable for student achievement on state standardized tests and schools that do not make AYP face…