Background: Despite evidence in support of the health benefits associated with fruit and vegetable (FV) intake, national data indicate that FV consumption among school-aged children is below recommended levels, particularly among low-income children. School meals offered through the School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program can…

"Kids' Share 2013: Federal Expenditures on Children in 2012 and Future Projections," a seventh annual report, looks comprehensively at federal spending and taxes on children. Federal outlays on children fell by 7 percent between 2011 and 2012, which is the greatest single-year drop since the early 1980s. While most of this decline is…

What does it mean for ethnic minority girls, who have historically been marginalized by schools, to "see themselves" in science? Schools fail to create spaces for students to engage their identity resources in the learning of science or to negotiate and enact new science-related identities. This study investigates relationships among…

Idaho Child Nutrition Programs (CNP) released the New Nutrition Standards for Idaho School Meals in January 2009 with the recommendation that all School Food Authorities fully implement the New Nutrition Standards for Idaho School Meals into their programs starting August 2009. Along with the release of the New Nutrition Standards for Idaho School…

This paper provides an update on all the new products and projects that U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has been working on, in its effort to help schools meet the nutritional needs of the students and to help in the President's challenge to End Childhood Hunger by 2015. This issue includes: (1) Back to…

Background: Although great focus has been placed on nutritional and other consequences of changes in food-related policies within schools, few reports exist describing the impact of such changes on school revenue. This review provides an overview of the few revenue-related studies published recently, as well as information from a sampling of state…

This report provides detailed information on the size of the achievement gaps between Hispanic and White public school students at the national and state levels and describes how those achievement gaps have changed over time. Additional information about race/ethnicity in NAEP is given in Appendix A. Most of the data in this report is derived from…

The current economic environment has impacted American families and the schools their children attend. Families are dealing with joblessness, increased poverty and hunger, less access to medical care, increased mental health issues, and greater instability in the family unit. Schools work with more and more students from families dealing with…

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this research was to determine the prevalence of special food and/or nutrition needs in school nutrition programs. In addition, researchers focused on the issues surrounding these needs and the role of the school nutrition (SN) directors and managers in meeting these needs. Methods: An expert panel was used to…

Relatively little research has explored whether schools differ in their effectiveness for different group of pupils (e.g. by ethnicity, poverty or gender), for different curriculum subjects (e.g. English, mathematics or science) or over time (different cohorts). This paper uses multilevel modelling to analyse the national test results at age 7 and…

Over 42 million meals--31.2 million lunches and 11 million breakfasts--were served on a typical school day in fiscal year 2009 to children through USDA's National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. School food authorities (SFAs) operate local school feeding programs and deliver the meals to the schools. SFAs must serve appealing,…

Principals' attitudes toward inclusion have been shown to have a positive impact on successful inclusive practices within schools. Providing guidance, support, and training to assist the faculty and staff with inclusion had been acknowledged to make a difference for schools administrators who were making changes to include more students with…

Implementation of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 will provide an opportunity for school nurses to intervene in the serious childhood obesity problem in the United States. Major changes in the management of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) will likely challenge schools yet may provide the impetus for a collaborative effort by the…

"Contextual value added" (CVA) scores have been used as a means of monitoring school performance in England since 2007. This article explains how these scores are calculated using biographical pupil data (including ethnicity, gender and Free School Meal status) in order to judge the impact of a school on pupils' attainment. This article…

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has contracted with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to examine ways to implement the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) into the school meals programs. In the meantime, USDA has requested that state agencies begin proactively implementing the applicable recommendations for the 2005 DGAs…