The numbers speak for themselves in terms of the crisis of hunger among kids in the United States: More than 16 million children--one in five--live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Nearly half of all food stamp recipients are children. But, argues Felling, the battle against childhood hunger can be won; the United States has…

The authors report the results of a phenomenological, qualitative research study involving 20 students who participated in a weekend poverty immersion experience. Analysis of the tape-recorded interviews included coding, checks for internal validity, and the generation of themes common to most of the research participants. Two overall results were…

The relationship between students' living in poverty and academic underachievement challenges schools across the nation. Poverty is particularly prevalent among children with disabilities. One detrimental condition of poverty that directly affects student development and academic achievement is food insecurity and hunger. With the increasing…

In 2008, the Ministry of Education in Manitoba, Canada approved a $1.8 million grant for a major three-year pilot project entitled the Student Success Initiative (SSI) designed to support schools facing barriers to success. Six schools with lower-than-average graduation rates in Manitoba from urban, rural, and northern communities were invited to…

In a given year, approximately 1.6 million children in the United States experience homelessness, and research shows that their living conditions generally place these children at risk for educational underperformance and failure at school (Hall, 2007; Love, 2009). Although lack of education or low levels of education on the part of a head of…

As immigration has reached historic numbers in the United States, immigrant children have become an integral part of the national tapestry. While immigration has grown across all post-industrial nations, inequality has risen at a steep rate on a variety of indicators, including income distribution, child poverty, residential segregation, and…

This paper examines poverty's impact on student physical health, socioemotional health, and the brain. Further, although children spend only 20 percent of their time in school, this paper examines the school's role in student development, as well as proposes effective policies and programs that go beyond the classroom.

Within developed countries child poverty is a social problem with significant negative effects. With a backdrop of austerity, the UK's first child poverty strategy was released in 2011. Pervaded by neo-liberal ideology this strategy identifies preschool services as key to remediating the negative effects of child poverty on children and families…

This article discusses the implication of the implementation of anti-poverty policy in both the United Kingdom and the United States. International studies of child poverty usually find that the United States and United Kingdom are at the bottom of the league table in terms of child poverty. Indeed, the U.S. and U.K do not fare well in…

A major challenge for education policymakers and educators globally is the strong and persistent impact of student socio-economic status (SES) on learning. This is a challenge that will not be addressed solely by school-focused reform. However, one policy initiative that could make a positive difference in this regard, and could bring other…

For many schools, the most pressing concern is helping families meet basic needs. Between 2007 and 2009, according to the Brookings Institution, the number of people who live in poverty increased by 4.9 million. Brookings reported that between 1999 and 2009, two thirds of the increase in poverty occurred in the suburbs. With poverty and social…

Planning and preparing for life after high school is a central developmental task of American adolescents, and may be even more critical for low-income youth who are less likely to attend a four year college. This study investigates factors that led to the effects of the New Hope Project, a work-based, anti-poverty program directed at parents on…

Five-year-old Michael lived on a small island in Micronesia. He was wonderfully creative in laying out a house on the sand with the sticks he gathered from a mangrove swamp. Akanina, a mother in the village, lost both her infant son and her own mother within a short time due to a lack of available health care and affordable medication. In Rino's…

Part 1 provides evidence, drawing on Statistics Canada reports, that Canadians without a high-school certificate are most at-risk of unemployment, low earnings, and poverty. Young adults are especially hard hit, with significantly higher unemployment rates and lower average earnings than high-school graduates. Part 2 cites research that shows the…

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are long-standing policies that link cash assistance to low-income families to work effort. A new policy being tested in New York City adopts this "conditional cash transfer" principle and extends it to a broader set of family efforts to build their…