Although education is a right, it still remains a distant dream for many of India's children (Where knowledge is poor). It is clear that it is not enough to make laws; they need to be augmented by more efforts. Education should be accessible to all if democracy is to succeed. Many communities and groups like disadvantaged castes and women have…

This case was written to help prepare teacher-leaders, principals, and central office administrators, particularly those in rural and economically marginalized settings, who are expected to lead teachers and stakeholders in their community through increasingly stressed economic conditions. The intent of the case study is for educators to examine…

Gaps in the achievement between poor and more advantaged children and minority and nonminority students of all ages continue to be the most central problem in the field of education. Achievement differences by racial/ethnic group and socioeconomic status (SES) level are especially pronounced and pervasive within the major urban school districts in…

Poverty among individuals is an enduring condition in almost all societies. The responses by governments to poverty, however, have varied. In the United States, President Lyndon Johnson sought to address poverty through the creation of the Great Society programs in the 1960s. In effect, he declared a War on Poverty. Later, especially during the…

To extend children's understandings about economic disadvantage, some early primary teachers choose a critical literacy curriculum. In such a curriculum, teachers often introduce realistic children's literature to foster sustained and meaningful conversations with children about issues affecting the society. This article looks at four first-person…

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…

Low achievement and high dropout rates among poor and minority students continue to plague U.S. society. While much attention over the past quarter century has focused on reforming the schools these students attend, little or no progress has been made in actually closing the achievement gaps or reducing the number of dropouts. Why? Aren't…

Homelessness affects people of all backgrounds, races, and religions. Whether the number of homeless people is 300,000 or 3 million, as some estimates claim, there are too many people in America who struggle to find shelter daily, making homelessness one of the most serious problems facing the nation today. This discussion, designed for the…

Changes in homelessness since the 1950s and 1960s involve increasing numbers of homeless persons, striking differences in their composition, and marked deterioration in their condition. Beyond similarly high levels of mental illness and substance abuse, the new homeless are younger, poorer, often shelterless, and include more minorities, women,…

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…

Discusses areas of disagreement between the Institute of Medicine's report, "Homelessness, Health and Human Needs," and the controversial supplementary statement, "Health Care for the Homeless," issued separately by 10 of the authors. (FMW)

This report examines child poverty in the United States, discusses its cause and persistence, and makes recommendations for solutions. Areas examined involve the historical roots of social-welfare policy in the United States; the facts behind the mythologies and misperceptions concerning child and family poverty; the children and families to be…

This article discusses the reasons for poverty among children in both two-parent working poor families and single-parent families. (Author/YP)

Presents the view that genuine educational reform is impossible in today's political, social, and economic climate. Today's policymakers are not truly antipoverty and do not truly care about the plight of the less fortunate. The current preoccupation with economic progress means that reform has come to mean inattention. (SLD)

While homelessness results from a variety of factors, ultimately its cause is an insufficient supply of suitable housing. The Federal government must massively intervene to halt the loss of additional low-income housing units, and benefits paid to the welfare-dependent population must approximately double. (MW)