Discusses various viewpoints on poverty. Contrasts progressive-era politics with today's dependency politics. Differing views of the poor and the causes of poverty impede the implementation of the new paternalistic programs which have, in some places, begun to succeed. Urges a consensus. (DM)

Relates the origin and aims of the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) begun in 1972. It has failed to improve the health of newborn children or lower the infant mortality rate, because these problems relate to behavior rather than lack of food. Prenatal care and medical intervention are more appropriate…

Affluent and disadvantaged children stand in lunch lines and dine in school cafeterias as equals at the Bay Shore Schools (NY). Thanks to a computerized "LunchBox" point-of-sale system, cashiers know children by name, their birthdays, who suffers from which food allergies, and which children are entitled to free or reduced-price meals.…

Examines relationships between student mobility and student and school performance, based on data for 6,000 Texas schools. One out of six students changed schools at least once during 1994-95. Over a four-year period, two-thirds of first-graders moved at least once. Mobility rates are higher for poorer, at-risk, and minority students. Mobile…

Due to lower rates of employment and other labor market difficulties, working-age persons with disabilities tend to have lower incomes and are more likely to live in poverty than persons without disabilities. Those with severe disabilities are more likely to be female, African American, older, and less educated than those without disabilities.…

Argues that existing secondary education system in Bangladesh, designed during British colonial times, is ill suited to serve current labor-market demands. Discusses three economic distortions resulting from the misalignment of secondary education with the labor market: inappropriate curriculum, excess demand for secondary education, and increased…

Describes cooperative efforts by 15 urban school districts with minority enrollments of 35-90 percent to study reasons for and solutions to academic achievement gap of minority students by using data from the Network for Equity in Student Achievement in partnership with the Education Research Service. (PKP)

Background: A small number of prior studies have found that victims of school bullying tend to exhibit poor social skills. Few of these have examined this issue from multiple perspectives, and there has been a focus on a restricted range of social skills. Aims: To determine the extent to which self, peers, and teachers regard victims as having…

There are two tendencies in the literature regarding the relationship between income and subjective well-being. The first tendency maintains that there is a strong relationship between these two variables, and that the poorer the population, the more pronounced this relationship. The second tendency downplays this relationship, arguing that a…

This paper draws upon work conducted as part of a research project into food and nutrition in the early years, and looks very specifically at the way in which practitioners in the field are both aware of current debates around such issues and how they put good policy into their practice. In drawing out such debates with practitioners, it also…

Analyses of data from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) show how strongly associated the socioeconomic characteristics of schools are with school outcomes. Factors such as the percentage of students who are poor, percentage black, and the property values within a district explain over 70% of the variance in school outcomes. However,…

The well-being of the children is intricately tied to the well-being of the system. So, as the system goes, so goes the child. The parents and grandparents of these children simply want what all loving parents want for their children. They know the role education plays in the child's future. The more and better education a person has, the more and…

The escalating cost of college tuition seems to be on everyone's minds these days. Particularly concerned are low-income students, who are often averse to taking out loans for fear of jeopardizing their own, as well as their families', financial situation. Experts say economically disadvantaged students of all races are worse off if the only aid…

Jerry Paquette, in his article "Public Funding for "Private" Education: The Equity Challenge of Enhanced Choice" (in this issue, 568), properly urges everyone to ponder, then to reject, various hypothetical schemes for school choice whose design might worsen the plight of the poor. Among these devices, his chief bugbear is a largely unregulated…

During the late 19th century, universities subtly shifted their efforts from admitting poor students to conducting research on poverty. This transition occurred within a complex historical, sociological, and economic milieu of three national forces: universities' quest for prestige; the relationship of expertise and professionalism to the…