The One Year Plus policy of Baltimore City Public Schools described in this Newsletter has the potential to breathe new life into "special education" for students with disabilities. In recent decades, many waves of K-12 education reform--including the No Child Left Behind Act, charter schools, alternative teacher recruitment paths,…

The purpose of "Focus" is to provide coverage of poverty-related research, events, and issues, and to acquaint a large audience with the work of the Institute for Research on Poverty by means of short essays on selected pieces of research. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Progress toward Improving the U.S. Poverty Measure:…

Effective mathematics education for young children (approximately ages 3 to 5) seems to hold great promise for improving later achievement, particularly in low-SES students who are at risk of inferior education from preschool onwards. Yet there is limited understanding of what preschool and kindergarten mathematics education entails and what is…

The author reacts to the impending reauthorization of the Head Start program by questioning evidence of its long-term impact and making several recommendations for reform: (1) Strengthen Head Start school readiness standards; (2) Guarantee civil rights protections for faith-based providers; (3) Encourage state innovation and improvement; and (4)…