This article features Pierce County High School in rural southeast Georgia whose 965 students, almost half of whom are from economically disadvantaged families, have demonstrated what a focus on student learning can accomplish. In 2004, the school ranked at the bottom of the state in students passing the high school graduation tests, and only 55%…

Catholic schools are called to model themselves on gospel values including the exercise of a preferential option for the poor. This article seeks to recover the true sense of preferential option for the poor from the gospel of Luke and apply it to the state-funded Catholic schools in Scotland, which were historically established to serve the poor…

This paper examines psychological detachment (i.e., mentally "switching off") from work during non-work time as a partial mediator between job stressors and low work-home boundaries on the one hand and strain reactions (emotional exhaustion, need for recovery) on the other hand. Survey data were collected from a sample of protestant pastors (N =…

Back in 1975, the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers defined the poor as "individuals or families whose resources are so small as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life of the Member State in which they live". This widely quoted definition leaves room for discussion about what can be considered a "minimum…

This article describes the findings from the assessment of a touch-screen, multi-media learning program on livestock health and production: "The Daktari." The program was tested on a sample of 62 livestock keepers in the Nairobi slums of Kariobangi and Kibera. The study examined prior knowledge regarding three livestock diseases (liver…

For more than 20 years, Advocates for Children of New Jersey has published the Newark Kids Count Data Book, a one-stop source for child well-being data on the state's largest city. Newark Kids Count includes the latest statistics, along with five-year trend data, in the following areas: demographics, family economic security, food insecurity,…

Evidence suggests that children living in areas designated as socially disadvantaged may be at risk for literacy difficulties. The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover &Gough, 1986) is a theoretical model that sets out to describe the processes that children need to develop to become proficient readers, that is word…

I examine several potential explanations for recent evidence showing a lack of improvement in the academic achievement of children participating in several poverty reduction residential mobility programs. Detailed interviews and field notes about the relocation and school experiences of 80 children in the Gautreaux II residential mobility program…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the college-readiness rates of high school graduates in Texas designated as being (a) economically disadvantaged, (b) Limited English Proficient (LEP), or (c) enrolled in special education using archival data from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS). Data,…

Underrepresented high school students must be effectively prepared for postsecondary education. Ensuring that all students graduate from high school college-ready is requiring educators to rethink traditional programming in an attempt to better meet the needs of all students. Therefore, the utilization of college preparation programs such as…

Studies have documented challenges in meeting No Child Left Behind (NCLB) expectations as well as gender differences that contribute to the achievement gaps between boys and girls. In response to increased NCLB accountability and achievement gaps between boys and girls, several experts have promoted single-sex education as a possible strategy to…

Simulation games can help overcome student resistance to thinking structurally about social class inequality, meritocracy, and mobility. Most inequality simulations focus solely on economic inequality and omit social and cultural capital, both of which contribute to social class reproduction. Using a pretest/posttest design, the current study…

In South Africa, the development of the 2001 White Paper No. 5 on Early Childhood Development (ECD) has been an instrumental policy in the development of changes to assist in preparing children for formal schooling, along with a strong focus on early childhood education. However the extent to which these are being enacted is relatively unknown.…

Parents of dependent children make up nearly a quarter (3.9 million) of the undergraduate students in the United States, and half of those parents are single parents (1.9 million). Many are pursuing postsecondary education with the hope of improving their families' lives. Research has shown that their strategy is a good one: postsecondary courses…

Although universities have expanded in size, it is unclear whether the poor have benefited. If there are high returns to college education, then increasing access of the poor to college has important welfare implications. The objective of this paper is to document the rates of enrollment into college of the poor and to identify the hurdles to…