This monograph presents the executive summary of a study evaluating the first-year impacts and program operations of Upward Bound, a federal pre-college program designed to help economically disadvantaged students complete high school and gain access to post-secondary education. In 1996, 45,000 students participated in the program through projects…

The 1996 welfare reform law--the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act--has contradictory aspects. It gives the states greatly increased fiscal flexibility and at the same time sets extensive and elaborate new behavioral requirements. The dynamics of welfare since the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 have been…

Central governments' supply-side expansions of schooling have not equally benefited all members of society, especially girls, indigenous peoples, tribal groups, disadvantaged minorities, and the poor. Public spending on education is often inefficient, higher education is subsidized at primary education's expense, and costs are becoming…

A study used a unique data set to evaluate the effect of Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) on the labor market outcomes of program participants--more than 29,000 individuals for whom Pennsylvania businesses sought tax credits during 1988-94 (final sample was 17,388). Firm-level data were combined with wage data obtained from administrative quarterly…

This manual for Idaho school districts covers the identification, assessment, and educational needs of students (ages 5-18) who show intellectual promise, specific academic performance, leadership, and creativity or talent in the visual or performing arts. The manual also addresses the needs of underserved students who are gifted, including rural…

The Workforce Investment Act 1998 (WIA) made major changes in programs for youth from economically disadvantaged families. It mandated program performance indicators. A study examined the new performance indicators and determined whether they were adequate or should be supplemented with involvement of stakeholders concerned about youth programs.…

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) program was developed and offered in 3-year pilot projects that were designed to test whether extra funds would encourage more of England's young people from low-income families to participate in full-time education and training, stay on course for the duration of the program, and achieve their…

This publication addresses tuition and other fees practiced in education as a means of cost sharing in Lesotho (a small, underdeveloped African nation). The case of Lesotho is an extreme example of household and community financing of education, both at the primary and secondary level, with parents paying for the bulk of their children's…

The current poor condition of education for Hispanic students need not exist. This book reports on high-performing schools along the Texas-Mexico border that have achieved schoolwide success by creating communities of learners. Three elementary, three middle, and two high schools in the border region were selected for study based on the following…

In the year 1998, California began a massive experiment that focused on testing students and holding teachers and administrators accountable for results. The goal: dramatic, system-wide improvement. Schools' performance began to be measured using California's Academic Performance Index (API). In 2001, with passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB),…

According to a recent study by the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics, poverty and social exclusion have been taken very seriously by this Government, resulting in high-profile targets, new policies and funding streams. Social exclusion was recognised to consist of multi-faceted and interlinked…

The Skills Reinforcement Project was designed to increase basic mathematics and language arts skills of disadvantaged and minority youth. Forty-five minority and economically disadvantaged sixth graders who participated in a 110-hour program made statistically greater gains in mathematics than 45 comparison sixth graders and nonsignificant gains…

Author and advocate for public school reform Herbert Kohl discusses vouchers; charter schools; home schooling; national academic standards; high stakes testing; the role of the arts, storytelling, and fun in education; countering school failure; and the importance of developing teacher communities that cut across public, private, and home school…

Reviews the policy context in which the Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration program was designed and implemented, and describes how enhanced services group participation affected teen mothers as adults and parents. The authors discuss the program's ineffectiveness in improving participants' short-term economic status and childbearing and parental…

This paper provides a brief overview of the origins of attachment theory and its current relevance to early childhood research and education. The empirical component of the work reported here concerns the use of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) with mothers in a multi-disciplinary, multi-functional early childhood setting, the Pen Green Centre…