Ninety percent of brain development takes place before the age of five, and while universally agreed to be pivotal in defining the trajectory of a child's life, access to high-quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is often inaccessible for the world's most vulnerable populations. For the 2.5 million children living in East Africa's…

Match Beyond, launched in late 2013, offers accelerated degree programs through a pioneering approach that combines online education--provided by a partner, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)--with intensive coaching and support, including job-placement counseling. This small-scale strategy exposes the need for flexibility and personal…

In general, youth whose parents are involved in their schooling experience better academic outcomes. Yet some parents, especially those with few resources in low-income urban communities, face barriers to becoming engaged in school and community. This report from the field describes the "Neighboring Project Parent Empowerment and Volunteer…

Background: School environment and policy changes have increased healthy eating and physical activity; however, there has been modest success in translating research ?ndings to practice. The School Environment Project tested whether an adapted version of Intervention Mapping (AIM) resulted in school change. Methods: Using a pair randomized design,…

The evolution of several interrelated myths reflects a combination of misinterpretation of statistics, the commendable intention of ensuring that bias and prejudice do not play roles in the provision of services to underrepresented populations of gifted students, and misapplication of programming options for gifted students. Separately, these…

This annual newsletter contains updates on the latest Community College Research Center (CCRC) research, new publications and details of upcoming presentations at major conferences. The feature article in this issue, "Strategies for Increasing Student Success," by Thomas Bailey, summarizes the discussion found in the CCRC Assessment of Evidence…

Hurricane Katrina's impact on the operations of the largest residential, addiction treatment organization in New Orleans is described. Pre- and post-Katrina experiences are discussed and augmented with organizational performance data. Suggestions for future research are provided. (Contains 4 figures.)

This report describes the design and implementation of the three interventions tested in Project Upgrade, one of four experiments conducted as part of the Evaluation of Child Care Subsidy Strategies. The evaluation was a multi-site, multi-year effort to determine whether and how different child care subsidy policies and procedures and quality…

Research shows that New Zealand has an approximate population of 600,000 children between the ages of five and fourteen years, and that approximately 80,000 of those children attend an out-of-school-care service each year. The New Zealand government allocates approximately $20 million to suitably approved programs, funding for families of lower…

Describes study of rural or small town community development programs funded by the Small Town Emphasis Program. Outlines program factors including competition, innovation, needs assessment, low income involvement, networks, technical assistance, efficiency, strategy, and timing. Provides examples of six programs and recommends future development…

This report describes the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund's Pathways to Teaching Careers Program, which is designed to help increase and diversify the supply of well-trained public school teachers willing to work in low-income schools. Program design drew on findings of leading educational researchers that made a strong case for investing in…

This document comprises testimony delivered before the House Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit created by the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and on the role of tax policy in preserving the stock of low-income housing. The effectiveness of the low-income credit program is discussed and strategies to improve it…

The Carnegie Branch of the Houston Public Library (HPL) has attempted to establish credibility in a low income, Spanish speaking neighborhood by making the library visible to individuals on the street, contacting community leaders, and working with dropouts. The Branch, selected to implement a Neighborhood Information Center (NIC), established a…

A project to implement the theories of Jean Piaget in elementary school curricula, teacher inservice training, and college preservice training with 11 school districts, a college, and New York State Education Department was described in this paper. The change in the program scope from a teacher introduction to Piaget's theory focusing on…

About 30 years ago, Betty Friedan published "The Feminine Mystique" and changed the lives of millions of women forever. The education of women, the prime vehicle to bring about change, has passed through many phases. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, many kinds of special programs for women blossomed in colleges and universities, continuing…