In the United States, preschool teachers report behaviour management as one of the greatest challenges when educating young children. Teachers consistently feel unprepared to meet the needs of children with persistent challenging behaviours. Unfortunately, the issue affects more than just preschool teachers. Behaviour issues that emerge in…

Creative Youth Development (CYD) is a long-standing practice that fuels students' potential by intentionally integrating creative skill-building, inquiry and expression with positive youth development principles. In CYD programs, young people create original work through arts experiences and apply their creative skills to solve problems. These…

This article draws on oral history testimonies to examine the experiences of participants in the inaugural 1990 cohort of Teach For America (TFA)--a group of young people dubbed the "best and brightest" of their generation and tasked with "saving" urban education. For 25 years, TFA has operated according to the principle of the…

Federal policy changes for Head Start (HS) elevate the importance of measured academic performance over other traditional program aims, particularly those associated with the social-emotional development of children. Concerned about the possible effects of these changes on children, based on observations and interviews, detailed portraits of…

The civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s had a transformational effect on American society and on grassroots movements for social justice at home and abroad during that era and beyond. But much of the history of the push for racial equality in America is often told as if it is on a constant repetitive loop, when other accounts are…

Collaboration is tough even in ideal circumstances. How do you begin to effect change when nearly half of the families in a district speak a language other than English in the home, but traditional education models rarely emphasize the strengths of cultural or linguistic diversity? Or when nearly all students live in low-income families and face…

Literacy programs often target preschool children who are from minority groups, are from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and are second language learners, as they are deemed to be at risk for academic difficulties. The family literacy program described in this article is unique in that it focuses on families who have an additional risk…

As homelessness increased among families and children during the 1980s and 1990s, policymakers created, and strengthened, the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program. The McKinney-Vento EHCY program aims to mitigate the effects of residential instability through the identification of homeless children in schools and…

The collision of the childhood obesity epidemic with pressure to achieve high academic standards is of serious concern in the United States. Growing numbers of low-income, minority children face double jeopardy as alarming obesity rates further widen existing achievement gaps. Health and education disparities persist when children enter…

Early Head Start is a federally funded community-based program for low-income families with infants and toddlers and for low-income pregnant women. Created in 1995, Early Head Start strives to promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women, to enhance the development of children ages birth to three, and to promote healthy family functioning.…

This booklet is part of a series of reports on "hot topics" in education. When educators build on informal tutoring processes and create organized processes of tutoring, it can become a powerful tool for learning, whether it is peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring, or parent/volunteer tutoring. Tutoring benefits students, who receive…

Implementing recommendations derived from research and literature on school effectiveness, 20 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) schools have set and enforced standards that reflect their belief in their students' ability to achieve. (Author/JM)

Describes an extended school day program in the Dade County (Florida) schools that was tested on 4,000 Title I eligible elementary students. In all but one case, the pilot groups surpassed the achievement of children in regular Title I programs. (Author/IRT)

Four promising programs for raising student achievement are described. All four attempt schoolwide improvement and primarily affect curriculum and pedagogy. Each program has its own strengths and weaknesses, but they all show evidence of: (1) high standards; (2) effectiveness; (3) replicability; and (4) support structures. Success for All, an…