The central purpose of this book is to challenge current social constructions of poverty, reading education, and the putative relationship between the two. It explores how official and popular representations of poverty are bound to specific historical, social, and economic conditions of their own production. The book offers four stances of…

This essay discusses the roots, current shapes, and social and operational implications of mentoring young people in poverty. After an introductory first section on mentoring and the new voluntarism, Section II, "Recurring Fervor," notes recent increased interest in mentoring and traces the early manifestations of mentoring to 19th…

A study explored the extent to which 154 federal programs that provide employment training assistance overlap in the populations targeted and services provided and whether such overlap has any potentially adverse effects. The research was conducted in the following ways: categorizing the 154 programs by the primary target populations served;…

Early childhood education and care (educare) combined with community development presents a unique opportunity to stimulate the disadvantaged and oppressed sectors of the population towards improved economic status, increased self-confidence and self-esteem, and human development. The three main elements of this approach are the community,…

This report reviews school department data and interviews with officials and others involved in the Norfolk (Virginia) school resegregation plan designed to stem White flight and increase parental involvement. The report finds that all the basic assumptions the local community and the court had about the potential benefits of undoing the city's…

Alternatives is a project designed for youngsters, ages 11-15, who display serious conduct problems and severe learning deficiencies. The primary goal of the project is to prevent the development of a chronic antisocial orientation among youngsters who are at high risk for such an outcome. The interventions employed at Alternatives are based on…

This research investigated factors affecting children's health, based on empirical analyses of data from Washington, D.C. and national data. By most measures, poor children experience disproportionate morbidity and mortality. Yet certain ear and vision problems exhibit a U-shaped relation to family income in both national statistics and the…

Investigated were school children's recognition of social class distinctions, cues they used, and the relationship of their ideas about social class to other beliefs and attitudes about the social world. An ethnically mixed group of 201 male and female subjects participated in the study. Five age groups were represented: second, fifth, and sixth…

This document summarizes the first report of the Study of Academic Instruction for Disadvantaged Students, a 3-year investigation of curriculum and instruction in elementary schools serving high concentrations of poor children. (The first report constitutes volume 2 of a projected series). Recent scholarship, theory, and experimentation in the…

Growing income disparities between wealthy Americans and those in low or moderate income brackets are contributing to a widening income gap between rural and urban areas. Proposed federal tax policy changes would primarily benefit upper income brackets and would likely widen the gap further. An analysis of census data indicates that since the…

New York City's Dropout Prevention Program (DPP), founded in 1985, has reduced the dropout rate at city schools from 42 percent to 30 percent. This information packet offers an overview of the dropout problem, the philosophy behind the DPP, and information on the steps New York City has taken to provide solutions. The program contains the…

This study describes the status of 34 million rural women and analyzes how they and their families will be directly affected by cuts in the 1983 federal budget in the areas of legal services, vocational education, domestic violence intervention, energy assistance and alternative energy development, public housing, unemployment compensation, social…

The handbook contains documents that the reading support assistant will need to implement the Orange County, Florida public schools Chapter 1 program. Included are the following: (1) lists of Chapter 1 schools, staff, and staff assignments; (2) job description of reading support assistant; (3) duties clarification; (4) fact sheet about Chapter 1;…

The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) sees a strong connection between the dropout decision and unemployment in the teen years and beyond. It developed JOBSTART, a model of a project giving youths a chance to work and focusing on educational remediation, occupational training strategies, and support services to dropouts. To…

The 1985 evaluation of the Adolescent Vocational Exploration Program (AVE) found that this New York State Department of Labor intervention and pre-employment project has been successful in increasing young people's chances of gaining employment and functioning productively in the labor market. Primarily for 14- and 15-year-olds, AVE seeks to…