This brief summarizes key findings from five papers that examine child marriage and interventions to address it. While the findings from each of the papers are briefly noted, the brief focuses on the importance of context in understanding the drivers and impact on child marriage. Based on key findings, the brief offers cross-cutting…

This paper evaluates whether student loans given to poor students at a large university in Peru are effective in reducing the time-to-degree. It uses a methodology that avoids the "selection problem" because the students voluntarily request a loan depending on their economic situation. The econometric results confirm the negative effect…

This article explores the intervention strategy used by the staff and school management team of a South African township school to ensure that final-year learners exposed to an environment of multiple deprivation are adequately prepared for the year-end standardised examination. Analysis of the interview data confirms literature findings on the…

The number of homeless children and youth in the United States is on the rise (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2016). Between 2016 and 2017 in the Los Angeles County Homeless Count, there was a 41% increase in the number of homeless minors (The Los Angeles Service Authority, 2017). Education is key to bringing people out of…

The qualitative study on which this article reports explored how senior leaders, mathematics and Spanish language teachers (N = 72) in four high-performing, high-poverty, public secondary schools in Chile enact performance-based accountability policies related to standardised assessments. These four public schools were selected because prior to…

Among the many troubling legacies of centuries of slavery and discrimination in the United States are extraordinary race-based inequalities in life chances. Black children grow up in families with much lower income and wealth, on average, than White children. They are more likely than White children to live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty…

Aim: The development of a trauma-informed approach to closing the poverty-related attainment gap called Readiness for Learning (R4L). This is a project funded by the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC). This paper reports on a strand of the intervention that took place in two Primary One classrooms over the academic session 2017/18. Method: This…

Studies in education over the past decade highlight the hijacking of educational agendas by neoliberal rationalities and logics. I illustrate these processes in relation to transnational campaigns for girls' education, where the purpose of "education" is reduced to producing wage-based labor and an accumulation of skills that enhance…

"Changing the Course of Family Literacy" re-examines the importance and value of family literacy programming and offers several policy recommendations to focus attention on the four-component model used in Even Start. This paper explores the current status of Family literacy and, after gathering information from 47 states, found that 11…

Why do educated girls and women constitute a danger in some societies and for this face extreme danger in their educational endeavours? This article argues that historical and contemporary educational discrimination of girls and women is the hallmark of a violently patriarchal society, and this stubborn injustice is exacerbated under conditions of…

The low quality of educational services in the "favelas" (slums) of Rio de Janeiro is well documented (e.g., Abramo, 2003; Alves, Franco & Ribeiro, 2008; Cano, 2012; Cavallieri e Coelho, 2003; Frigotto, 2004; Henriques, 2000; Henrique & Ramos, 2011; Machado, 2002 & 2008; Valladares, 2010). In 2010, the average twenty-five…

We review the development of the Jamaican home visiting intervention for children under 4 years and its evidence base. The intervention has focused on supporting mothers to promote the development of their children through interacting in a responsive way, labelling the environment and activities. The curriculum is structured and cognitively…

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have spread worldwide as a new form of social assistance for the poor. Previous evaluations of CCT programs focus mainly on rural settings, and little is known about their effects in urban areas. This paper studies the short-term (1- and 2-year) effects of the Mexican "Oportunidades" CCT program…

Educational targeting has become one of the hegemonic mechanisms in the fight against poverty. Both international organisms and developing countries support targeting as one of the best strategies in order to simultaneously guarantee poverty reduction and economic growth, and consequently to tackle the challenges generated by globalisation. The…

Background: Disadvantaged communities are increasingly the target for interventions. Sure Start was launched in England in 1999 to tackle child poverty and improve child and family services, with Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) targeted at relatively small areas of marked deprivation. However, they are located in a range of different types of…