The educational reform movement has proven largely irrelevant to urban minority students' needs. Dropout prevention programs have bestowed meaningless diplomas, while side-stepping the root causes of failure and underachievement. Urban high schools are large and impersonal and have a sour, dispirited atmosphere that discourages learning. Clearly,…

Summarizes the benefits of early childhood education programs offering new hope to disadvantaged children and long-range savings to taxpayers. Reviews major issues concerning public preschool education, including funding, eligibility, need for high quality programs with a child development emphasis, adequate staffing, and appropriate child and…

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' findings are used to support the theory that the interplay between technology, economics, race relations, and power has always guided white treatment of blacks, and that blacks are being forced into ghetto reservations to suffer "conditional genocide" and be exterminated if they cause trouble. (PS)

Presents results of a study of low-socioeconomic status grade 7 students which examined why some achieve and others do not. Focuses on which differences in self-attitudes (locus of control) and cognitive processing (field dependence) existed between the achiever and non-achiever, and whether these differences are related to achievement. (KH)

This study attempted to identify elements accounting for reading proficiency among poor Black children. The expectation that teacher's style was important was not supported. Important elements seemed to be early reading, family encouragement, teachers' positive expectations, and placement with other good students. (CJM)

Vast changes took place in urban benevolence toward poor females in the first half of the nineteenth century. Agencies started by upper-class women as private organizations to support needy women became agencies run by salaried, professional, male charity workers whose job it was to train and discipline poor females. (RM)

Studies point to the existence of a global HIV/AIDS emergency among young people. An estimated 6,000 youths a day become infected, an average of one new infection every 14 seconds. The most socially and economically disadvantaged young people appear to be especially at risk of infection, and young women in developing contexts are at the greatest…

This Brief is the third in the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) series reporting on the policy implications of Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data. It summarizes results of recently completed research that explores in greater detail questions raised in initial analyses. Earlier analyses were based…

The Secretary issues regulations prescribing criteria to be used in selecting eligible members of the Armed Forces to participate in the Troops-to-Teachers program and receive financial assistance. These regulations implement section 2303(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (Act). The regulations also define the…

This publication provides a compilation of statistical information covering Pennsylvania high school graduates in public, private and nonpublic schools for the 2004-05 school year. Information is provided on race/ethnicity, gender and intended post-high school activity of graduates, including those who are college-bound. Information is also…

Since 1994, the National Science Foundation has funded Rural Systemic Initiatives (RSI), a set of systemic reforms to enhance math, science, and technology education in economically disadvantaged, rural areas through instructional and policy reform and community development activities. As part of an evaluation of the program, surveys were sent to…

The number of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) cases has fallen in the past 4 years, and there is disagreement over the cause. Credit has been given to "waiver" programs that resembled Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and to the growing economy. This sort of confusion over program effects is partly a…

This monograph discusses a project involving 246 teachers that investigated a Staff Development Model (SDM) and a Research-Based Assessment Plan (RAP) for their potential to improve the identification and education of gifted students from economically disadvantaged families, some of whom have limited proficiency in the English language. The…

This study examined the lifestyle of children from a sedentary grouping of 20 homeless families living under a viaduct in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The study particularly focused on issues related to this lifestyle, including dimensions of housing and cultural variations in housing related to child development and child rearing. The lifestyle of the…

Thrasher School is a K-12 unit school in Prentiss County, Mississippi, that has survived and flourished in an economically disadvantaged area because of its close community connections. The K-12 school enrolls 482 students, of which 144 attend grades 9-12. The community has vigorously resisted high school consolidation, financing reconstruction of…