Discusses the negative effects of social and economic development on conditions for children and families. Focuses on worldwide cuts in funding of social services for families and the need to change the political culture toward a more sustainable one that allows for proper levels of care, play, and education of children. (JPB)

We use data from a sample of applicants to a national means-tested school voucher program and a national sample of the population eligible for the program to evaluate the factors leading families to use school vouchers. Our analysis divides the process of voucher usage into two distinct stages: initial application and subsequent take-up. Using a…

The Randomized Control Trials (RCT) design and its quasi-experimental kissing cousin, the Comparison Group Trials (CGT), are golden to some and not even silver to others. At the center of the affection, at the vortex of the discomfort, are beliefs about what it takes to establish causality. These designs are considered primarily when the purpose…

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether it was necessary, cost effective and practical to investigate Welsh children's fitness levels in order to promote active, healthy lifestyles. Design: A multi-method study comprising a comprehensive review of literature, a questionnaire survey and interviews. Setting: This was a feasibility study…

In this article, the author provides a review and critique of key provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and documents some major effects of the law, which have not been positive for arts education and other subjects not formally tested under the law. Because NCLB is scheduled for reauthorization in 2007 or 2008, the author offers a…

This National Council on Disability (NCD) annual progress report to the President and Congress covers the period December 2005 through December 2006. The report is divided into 13 chapters, each dealing with a major area of public policy. These subject-specific chapters are preceded by an introductory Major Trends section that identifies…

This report presents preliminary findings from the Reading First Impact Study, a congressionally mandated evaluation of the federal government initiative to help all children read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) established Reading First and mandated its evaluation. This document is…

This article takes an ethnographical approach to explore the "state of exception" through which legal technologies of abortion and adoption of "war-babies" (children born as a result of wartime rapes) in the Bangladesh war enabled the dekinning and elimination of certain childhoods while the raped women were rekinned within…

For more than 40 years, Job Corps has led America as one of the most successful job training programs nationwide, meeting the needs of high school graduates and those without a diploma who have the desire to embark on a successful career path. In Program Year 2005, Job Corps implemented a new initiative called STARS (Speakers, Tutors, Achievement,…

This article takes Singapore, an emerging education hub, as a focal point from which to investigate its attempts to become a global city and knowledge-based economy. It outlines how discourses of the knowledge economy are used to rationalise particular policy interventions and the transnational education forms arising from them. It speculates on…

During this past winter, election fever hit Canadian schools from coast to coast to coast. Elementary and secondary school students across Canada studied the democratic process and took their new found knowledge to their own ballot boxes. Nearly half a million students, aged nine through 18, cast a ballot through the national parallel election…

The utilization of health services by older adults has received increased attention over the past decade, but little is known about how service utilization varies between rural and urban areas. In an era of restructuring and downsizing within the Canadian health care system, there are concerns that rural older adults may be increasingly…

This paper explores the educational background to the rise of interest in "British Studies." The document examines some tensions between arguments for a nationally-based curriculum area and for teaching as an emancipatory activity, considering such issues in the light of recent approaches to research on the curriculum. Finally, the paper considers…

This manual contains information for determining students' eligibility for free and reduced-price meals in the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Commodity School Program. Guidelines are also offered for schools in the Special Milk Program, which serves free milk to eligible students. The manual describes general…

In response to a call for new content and instructional techniques in the teaching of mathematics, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has launched an organization called MATHLINE, whose first project involved facilitating electronic communication among mathematics teachers nationwide. This document describes a study which examined the members'…