In 2010, approximately 14 percent of all students in the nation were enrolled in the organization's 65 urban school districts out of approximately 15,000 school districts nationwide. In addition, 21 percent of the nation's students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 26 percent of English language learner (ELL) students and 24 percent of the…

California's students, particularly its poorest students, need great teachers. Unfortunately, California's seniority-based teacher layoff system puts adult privileges over student needs. Newer teachers are laid off first, regardless of how well they do their jobs. This system is especially damaging to schools serving the highest numbers of…

Achieving the goals of federal education legislation depends on how federal funds are distributed and used. Since the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965, various federal programs have been created to support educational improvement and target additional resources to meet the educational needs of children who are…

The objective of this study was to characterize weapon-carrying adolescents and to assess whether weapon carriers differ from weapon users. Data were drawn from a cross-sectional school-based survey of 7548 adolescents aged 16-20 years in Switzerland. Youths carrying a weapon were compared with those who do not. Subsequently, weapon carriers were…

In this original qualitative study, we examined the processes employed by a school district that had made progress in closing achievement gaps in a post-No Child Left Behind context. The district served more than 26,000 students in an economically and ethnically diverse community. Secondary analysis of the findings uncovered a primary…

This short-term longitudinal study investigates whether maternal educational attainment, maternal employment status, and family income affect African American children's behavioral and cognitive functioning over time through their impacts on mothers' psychological functioning and parenting efficacy in a sample of 100 poor and near-poor single…

Students with disabilities are significantly underrepresented in the nation's community college population for multiple reasons. These include low expectations, poor high school preparation and transition planning, lack of communication or support services, and ineffective or poor support from school services personnel and faculty. This paper…

In recent times, actor, comedian, and educator, Bill Cosby sparked a national debate over the role of poor black families in raising their children. Additionally, scholars including Reginald Clark, Annette Lareau, John Ogbu, Javier Tapia, James Comer, and William A. Sampson have done research that suggests that many poor black and Latino families…

Compared with children from more affluent families, poor children face a higher risk of developmental delays and fare worse on various measures of developmental outcomes. This paper examines the relationship between poverty and child outcomes in the Jamaican context. Specifically, the paper focuses on the detrimental consequences for poor Jamaican…

The picture the World Bank paints of the world is an optimistic one: living standards are higher than ever before, humanity is progressing, and situations for women are improving. If this is really the case, why then does "the impoverishment of hundreds of millions of people" throughout the world continue? (Chossudovsky 1997, 33). Why do "the…

This study uses multilevel models to examine longitudinal associations between contextual influences (neighborhood and family) assessed in 1983 in a cohort of 2,355 children, 4-16 years of age, and educational attainment in 2001. Variation in educational attainment in 2001 attributable to between-neighborhood and between-family differences was…

"For most children and learners, things are getting better." This is an important and encouraging message from Ofsted Chief Inspector Christine Gilbert's Annual Report for 2007/08, and one to hang on to. However, it is not the whole story. From a social justice perspective it is also important to note for whom this is not the case. The Chief…

In its history, professional social work has long given at least lip service to the idea of building on client strengths as a part of the helping enterprise. This article provides an overview of the strengths approach to practice as it has evolved in social work and how that method and style might be applied by school counselors in their work with…

This study examines whether parents have the prerequisite knowledge about police interrogation that would allow them to compensate for youths' knowledge deficits, protect their interests, and buffer against their vulnerability to coercion. A racially diverse urban/suburban convenience sample of 77 11- to 13-year-olds, 46 14- to 15-year-olds, and…

For over four decades, the federal Head Start program has provided millions of young children from impoverished backgrounds with access to early childhood education and basic health services. By some important measures, Head Start has helped put children on the path to academic and economic success. Teachers in the Head Start program play a…