The present study will investigate the efficacy of "Trauma-Informed Mind-Body Wellbeing Program" ("TI-MBW"), a 10-12 session yoga-based program for community members in Kenya which has a 5-day training period for yoga teachers. The yoga teachers were trained by the Africa Yoga Project (AYP), an organization which aims to…

Policymakers have invested significant resources in financial education to improve financial literacy of the poor, reduce bad financial decision-making, and increase take-up of financial services and products. Yet, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of such interventions, especially in developing countries. This paper provides evidence…

This article describes the development and use of a rapid evaluation approach to meet program accountability and learning requirements in a research for development program operating in five developing countries. The method identifies clusters of outcomes, both expected and unexpected, happening within areas of change. In a workshop, change agents…

Students living in poverty are now the majority of the K-12 student population in the United States. Growing up in poverty results in lower self-regulation, executive function, and readiness to learn. Researchers suggest that mindfulness practices, such as yoga, can enhance student self-regulation and executive function, thereby increasing student…

In 2007, New York City launched the first test of a conditional cash transfer program in the United States. Called Family Rewards, the program sought to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty by offering cash assistance to poor families to reduce immediate hardship, but conditioned this assistance on families' efforts to improve their…

Background: Dialogic book-sharing is an interactive form of shared reading. It has been shown in high income countries (HICs) to be of significant benefit to child cognitive development. Evidence for such benefit in low and middle income countries (LMICs) is scarce, although a feasibility study of our own produced encouraging findings.…

Currently, there are many educational centres that demonstrate the need to promote initiatives to improve coexistence at school at the international level, especially in those located in contexts of social vulnerability. A socio-educational programme has been developed, applied and evaluated at a Singular Education Action Centre (Centro de Acción…

Out-of-school factors can significantly impact students' readiness to learn and thrive in school. Research confirms that larger social structures and contexts beyond the school are critical, accounting for up to two-thirds of the variance in student achievement (Coleman et al., 1966; Rothstein, 2010; Phillips, Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, &…

A randomized trial involving 19 elementary schools (K-5) was conducted to replicate and extend two previous experimental studies of the effects of a voluntary summer reading program that provided (a) books matched to students' reading levels and interests and (b) teacher scaffolding in the form of end-of-year comprehension lessons. Matched…

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are used to reduce poverty while incentivizing investments in children. Targeting CCTs to certain groups of children can improve efficiency, but positive effects on eligible children may be offset by reductions in investments for ineligible siblings. Using data from Nicaragua, we estimate program effects on…

This study explores the long-term impact on participation in the Linda Ray Intervention Program (LRIP) for children (n = 54) who were developmentally delayed and prenatally exposed to cocaine. By identifying a group of programme graduates from a high crime/high poverty neighbourhood in Miami-Dade County using ArcGIS 10.2 software, a…

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…

Policy makers, practitioners and scholars agree that teachers need sustained job-embedded professional learning experiences to help students meet the demands of new accountability systems, higher education, and the workforce (Smylie, Miretzky, & Konkol, 2004; Valli & Buese, 2007). Research shows that job-embedded learning for teachers can…

The low rates of child literacy in South Africa are cause for considerable concern. Research from the developed world shows that parental sharing of picture books with infants and young children is beneficial for child language and cognitive development, as well as literacy skills. We conducted a pilot study to examine whether such benefits might…

City Year is a learning organization committed to the rigorous evaluation of its "Whole School Whole Child" model, which trains and deploys teams of AmeriCorps members to low-performing, urban schools to empower more students to reach their full potential. A third-party study by Policy Studies Associates (PSA) examined the impact of…