Learning about local government seems boring and irrelevant to most young people, particularly to students from high-poverty backgrounds. The authors explore a promising approach for solving this problem, Storypath, which engages students in authentic learning and active citizenship. The Storypath approach is based on a narrative in which students…

This study examines the effects of public preschool expenditures on the math and science scores of 4th graders, holding constant child, family, and school characteristics, other relevant social expenditures, and country and year effects, in 7 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries--Australia, Japan, the…

Using fiscal data provided by the finance office of the school district, and personnel data obtained from the California Basic Education Data System maintained by the California Department of Education (CDE), the authors present analyses to provide a foundation for local policymakers that may be used to assess whether there are inequities in the…

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Statewide Survey series provides policymakers, the media, and the public with objective, advocacy-free information on the perceptions, opinions, and public policy preferences of California residents. Inaugurated in April 1998, this is the 116th PPIC Statewide Survey in a series that has generated a…

A quasi-experiment using quantitative methods was conducted to examine the effects on academic student outcomes when a cohort of employed low-SES community college commuter students (the treatment group, N=198) participated in a comprehensive support and access intervention program, compared with similar students (the matched comparison group,…

The federal Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, project strives to equalize low-income students' access to higher education by increasing their participation in rigorous coursework, providing expanded opportunities for low-income students and parents to learn about postsecondary educational opportunities…

This paper challenges the assumptions that women "care" as a matter of course, that care work is natural, inevitable, and easy--requiring little skill and as a result should not be highly valued or rewarded. It does so by assessing the impact of Quebec's (Canada's) $7/day childcare program on an economically disadvantaged community near…

The UK government has encouraged schools and local authorities to promote school attendance because of its associations with academic attainment and antisocial behaviour. Legislation makes school attendance a parental responsibility. This small-scale study collected data on parent-child interaction immediately prior to school absence to examine…

In 2006, the Department for International Development (DfID) of the United Kingdom Government issued a White Paper entitled "Eliminating World Poverty: Making Governance Work for Poor People." The DfID document observed that good governance requires attention to State capability, described at "the extent to which leaders and…

In "Pushing Plastic," ("The New England Journal of Higher Education", Summer 2007), John Humphrey notes that many college administrators justify their credit card solicitations by suggesting that credit card access will help students learn to manage their own finances. Instead, credit card debt will teach thousands of students…

Women disadvantaged by poverty, as well as racial or ethnic minority status, are more likely to experience depression than the rest of the U.S. population. At the same time, they are less likely to seek or remain in treatment for depression in traditional mental health settings. This article explores a therapeutic, psychosocial engagement strategy…

This report describes a preventively oriented intervention program with 13 inner city toddlers identified as slow in early social and verbal development. Program components featured a committed human relationship, enrichment, modeling and shaping, and also a behavior modification sub-program unit. Program children evidenced significant…

The poor pay more than the non-poor for similar products in many consumer goods markets. This disparity seems not to be addressed by consumer protection regulations like disclosure laws. Several lines of argument suggest that the poor will not benefit from disclosure regulation either because they lack the ability to use information effectively…

LARGE SCALE EMPLOYMENT OF THE UNEMPLOYED POOR AS NONPROFESSIONALS IN THE HUMAN SERVICES IS BEING PROPOSED AS A MAJOR DETERRENT TO POVERTY. SOME PROPONENTS STATE THAT NOT ONLY WILL LARGE NUMBERS OF POOR PEOPLE BE EMPLOYED, BUT THE QUALITY OF SERVICES WILL BE IMPROVED. CRITICS OF THIS APPROACH ARGUE THAT MANY POOR PERSONS ARE TOO DEBILITATED BY THE…