We document the need to examine digital game play and app use as a context for cognitive development, particularly during middle childhood. We highlight this developmental period as 6- through 12-year olds comprise a large swath of the preadult population that plays and uses these media forms. Surprisingly, this age range remains understudied with…

Heeding the call put out by the "New England Journal of Medicine" (2017), we utilize an ecological-transactional model as a conceptual framework for understanding existing literature and for guiding future research on immigration enforcement threat and Latino child development. Using the World Health Organization's definition of…

With decades of evidence to support early childhood development (ECD) programs and policies, investment in ECD has expanded worldwide. Currently, over 70 nations have national ECD legislation, the majority in the last 20 years. However, with these increased investments comes evidence that the capacity of policy systems to support ECD--across…

Although the development and well-being of ethnic and racial minority children have received sustained attention over the past few decades from policymakers, researchers, and practitioners (Cabrera, Beeghly, & Eisenberg, 2012; Crosnoe & Fuligni, 2012; McLloyd, 1990, 2006; Quintana et al., 2006), these efforts have contributed to a body of…

The detrimental effects of lead exposure in children have been known for over 100 years. Although a few initial measures implemented about 30 years ago were effective in somewhat reducing levels of lead exposure in children, relatively little has been done recently from a policy perspective to protect children from lead. We now know from recent…

Policy debates about undocumented immigration in the United States focus most often on adults and adolescents. Yet 5.5 million U.S. children currently reside with at least one undocumented immigrant parent, with 4.5 million of these children U.S.-born citizens. Given that children with undocumented parents constitute nearly one-third of all…

In 2009, 14.7% of households were food insecure at some time during the year. In other words, members of those households did not have access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. This is arguably the most serious nutrition-related public health problem facing the U.S. today. The serious developmental consequences of food…

Across nations, Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs are of great interest to policymakers, service providers, and families. ECD programs are cross-cutting, often involving the health, education, child welfare, and other sectors, and their emphases shift over the early childhood years. In this paper, the authors propose equity as the…

One strategy for addressing the misalignment among postsecondary education, state workforce development programs and state economic development strategies is to create career pathways programs at community colleges where students are able to enroll in a defined track of coursework that leads to jobs in high-demand fields within a state or region.…

The "Research & Action Report," published twice a year, is a window on the activities and initiatives at the Wellesley Centers for Women. The report typically features news about the Centers, interviews with researchers, commentary on recent events or social trends affecting women and girls, announcements of new publications, and…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Engineering Solutions to the National Crisis in Literacy": Alliance Brief Calls for Alignment Between…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Obama Sets Timeline for NCLB Revamp: President Calls on Congress to Send Him an Education Reform Bill "Before…

Multilingualism is an international fact of life and increasing in the United States. Multilingual families are exceedingly diverse, and policies relevant to them should take this into account. The quantity and quality of a child's exposure to responsive conversation spoken by fluent adults predicts both monolingual and multilingual language and…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "The High Cost of Low Educational Performance": New OECD Report Finds that 25 Point Increase in PISA Scores…

There is increasing awareness that how young people spend their time outside of school has consequences for their development. As part of this awareness, interest in organized activities--extracurricular activities, after-school programs, and youth organizations--has grown markedly. On balance, the bulk of research on organized activities has…