Purpose: As part of an ongoing effort to analyze the distributional implications of potential policy reforms to the U.S. Social Security system, we consider the widely discussed reform of earnings sharing. Such an approach has been viewed as a way to "update" Social Security's family benefits based on marital status and as a means to…

Compared to other school typologies, major urban high poverty schools more frequently use exclusionary discipline and apply these techniques disproportionately to African American students. We explored school demographic variables predicting these two outcomes using data from 440 major urban, high poverty schools. Results suggest a different set…

When any groups are systematically excluded from meaningful participation and achieve below their levels of competence, they become both "marginalized" in their current school environments and economically and socially disadvantaged over their lifetimes. For many young people, these intersecting marginalities come in the form of lowered…

Difficulties in inhibitory processes have been shown to characterize the performance of poor comprehenders. However, the inhibitory inefficiency of poor comprehenders is most often assessed by their resistance to proactive interference, that is, the ability to suppress off-goal task information from working memory (WM). In two studies tasks…

Dorothy Day's love of the poor originated from reading novels that portrayed the poor as persons worthy of respect. This article explores how Day's reading novels opened her mind and heart to the realities of poverty. The methodology is literature-based. Dorothy Day's autobiography reveals the novelists who captivated her mind and cultivated a…

This brief case study provides a pithy introduction to Uganda and outlines key factors that affect the implementation of distance education in the nation: poor infrastructure, the high cost of an education, an outdated curriculum, inadequate expertise in distance education, and poor attitudes towards distance learning. These factors are also…

This study identified mediators of a Transtheoretical Model (TTM) intervention to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among economically disadvantaged African American adolescents (N = 549). Single-and multiple-mediator models were used to determine whether pros, cons, self-efficacy, and stages of change satisfied four conclusions necessary…

A targeted educational voucher scheme (TEVS) is often proposed for the poor in developing countries. Essentially, TEVS involves issuing vouchers to poor households, thus enabling them to pay tuition and fees for their children's schooling at participating non-public schools. However, little is known about TEVS' design in developing countries. This…

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,…

In this brief, authors Michael Staunton and Eleanor Jaffee review the key findings and recommendations from research conducted in the first half of the Coös Youth Study, which began in 2008 and is planned to continue through 2018. The study explores young people's decisions about their educational and job opportunities in rural northern New…

Abydos is a professional development program that includes a three-week writing institute. It provides school districts with teachers who, after a year of implementation and another year of professional development, can train other teachers, thus providing ongoing staff development. The Houston Independent School District (HISD) implemented Abydos…

Title I, Part A and Title II, Part A funds are provided to Houston Independent School District (HISD) through the 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Both funds focus on enhancing student achievement: Title I, Part A provides supplemental…

"Charting New Territory: Tapping Charter Schools to Turn Around the Nation's Dropout Factories" argues for a more prominent role for charter operators in turning around perennially low-performing high schools. However, the report's ultimate findings and conclusions are out of proportion to the strength of the research evidence on school…

This study examined the relationship between engaging institutional environments and alumni donor participation rates at 310 colleges and universities. The study found that engaging environments have positive relationships to alumni donor participation rates at Carnegie Baccalaureate institutions, but the relationship is not significant at Masters…

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is completed by students annually to determine eligibility for federal student financial aid. This report describes FAFSA completion outcomes for AISD seniors in 2011.