This volume of PISA examines the readiness of students to engage with learning strategies, to be motivated to learn and to be confident in their abilities and in their capacity to improve their skills and knowledge. Countries like Korea have reduced mathematics anxiety, Portugal excels in critical thinking, and more low-performing students in…

More than ever, students need to engage with mathematics concepts, think quantitatively and analytically, and communicate using mathematics. All these skills are central to a young person's preparedness to tackle problems that arise at work and in life beyond the classroom. But the reality is that many students are not familiar with basic…

This report explores the factors and conditions that could help more students succeed at school despite challenging socio-economic backgrounds. It does this by studying resilient students and what sets them apart from their less successful peers. Understanding how educational systems can support disadvantaged students and help them "beat the…

In 1997, the Institute for Children and Poverty of Homes for the Homeless joined with more than 58 organizations from 10 cities across the country to develop a national snapshot of family homelessness in the United States. Nearly 800 families were surveyed. This report presents the results of this research. The typical homeless family in the…

A quarter of children under age 6 are poor. Poverty has a multiple and cumulative effect on children, regardless of race, family structure, or parental education level. As part of the Children's Defense Fund's Costs of Child Poverty Research Project, this report shows the effects of poverty on children. The Children's Defense Fund's stated mission…

This book is about teenage pregnancy among Latina teenagers in East Los Angeles (California). It focuses on teenage pregnancy and motherhood among economically disadvantaged Latinas aged 17 and under. The young mothers in this study were participants in a series of intervention efforts to prevent repeat pregnancy at a family planning clinic. This…

Based on nearly 500 interviews and qualitative case studies of families in inner-city Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), this book reveals how parents and their teenage children managed different levels of resources and dangers in low-income neighborhoods and how families and communities contributed to the development of the children. The chapters are:…

This book tells the story of America's single largest group of refugee children, the children of Vietnamese refugees, as they have experienced growing up in the United States. Although a significant minority of these children lags behind, for the most part Vietnamese children's school success suggests that ethnic progress depends on more than the…

This volume draws on data from the National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA) to explore the condition of the black family in America. The first chapter provides a general introduction, and each of the other chapters presents additional information about the NSBA as it pertains to specific subsamples of NSBA respondents. The following chapters are…

This book provides a national and state-by-state (including the District of Columbia) compilation of benchmarks of the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children in the United States. Ten indicators of children's well-being are taken from government sources: (1) percent low birth-weight babies; (2) infant mortality rate;…