Food insecurity poses a serious threat to children's development, but the mechanisms through which food insecurity undermines child development are far less clear. Specifically, food insecurity may influence children through its effect on parents' psychological well-being and parent--child interactions as a result, but past research on the role of…

Over the past 150 years, schools in America have been governed by various legislations geared toward increasing learning. One recurring theme across the various acts is that of parental involvement. This led to the broad question, "How does parental involvement impact student progress for primary students in Tier 2 and Tier 3 reading…

This dissertation investigated the roles of early childhood fundamental motor skills (FMS) competence on physical, cognitive, and psychosocial health outcomes among underserved preschoolers in Head Start, and examined parental influence on their children's FMS competence. An explanatory sequential mixed methodology was used to examine the…

We estimate the effect of welfare reform on the intergenerational transmission of welfare participation and related economic outcomes using a long panel of mother-daughter pairs over the survey period 1968-2013 in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Because states implemented welfare reform at different times starting in 1992, the cross-state…

Parents may have important effects on their children, but little work in economics explores whether children's schooling opportunities crowd out or encourage parents' investment in children. We analyze data from the Head Start Impact Study, which granted randomly-chosen preschool-aged children the opportunity to attend Head Start. We find that…

Many universities grapple with Latino student retention issues. Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, yet they also are the group that has the least amount of formal education. The literature suggests that parental support helps Latinos succeed academically in elementary, middle, and high schools. However,…

Head Start is a federally funded preschool program for poor children designed to help close the gap between those children and their more advantaged peers before they begin public schooling. Given that Head Start appears to have positive long-run impacts on its recipients, a natural and important next question to ask is: What are the channels…

Strategies to involve parents in the schooling of their children, especially parents of economically or educationally disadvantaged youngsters, are generally either advisory or collaborative. Advisory strategies structure parental involvement through councils at the school or district level. Collaborative strategies pursue various methods for…

The grassroots parent-based effort to reform public education predated, by more than a decade, the national awakening to problems in the schools. It began when parents became aware that the educational establishment perceived its "duty" to mold children's attitudes as a higher priority than the school's cognitive function and certainly…

The primary concern of this research was with community-school relations in American Indian education, particularly Navajo education. Major data on which this study was based came from interviews with 223 parents whose children attended various types of schools in Arizona during 1967-68: Nazlini (Bureau of Indian Affairs), Many Farms (BIA and…

This document is the final report of the study of impact on parents of the Parent Child Centers (PCC) which are administered through Head Start, Office of Child Development (OCD). Designed for families whose incomes fall below the federally established poverty levels, the Parent-Child Center program focuses upon meeting the needs of children from…

This report details the theoretical framework, methodology, and findings of research into the impact of Parent Advisory Councils (PACs) on the management and administration of Title I programs at the local level. The eight school districts studied were selected because they varied in their orientations toward PAC involvement in Title I, and in…

A summary of recent research shows that more than 11.5 million children lived in poverty in 2001 and likely will experience long-term negative effects of poverty, such as dropping out of high school, compromised physical growth and cognitive development, and reduced physical and psychological well-being as an adult. Improving the home life of…

This report on secondary school dropouts consists of an analysis of the scope and nature of the dropout problem, a discussion of successful programs and activities for dropouts, a description of a pilot study involving Minnesota public secondary schools and Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) agencies, and presentation of…