Using data from a longitudinal sample of former and current welfare recipients in Michigan spanning 1997 through 1999, the Womens Employment Study, this analysis examined how transitions from welfare to work affect parenting behavior and child behavior problems. Researchers used a fixed-effects regression design to control for all time-invariant…

This article examines contract schools and their influence on U.S. education. Schools that are contracted out may be viewed as a privatization development that both parallels and builds upon the charter-school movement. They can be defined as publicly funded schools operated by an independent group of teachers and administrators under a contract…

This document provides an overview of public-school voucher plans. Educational vouchers originated in the 1960s when Milton Friedman argued that vouchers would improve educational efficiency. Parents would receive the equivalent of per-pupil expenditures in the form of vouchers that could then be used at any school, either public and private. But…

This paper describes the evaluative research of the Palm Beach County, Florida School Districts Youth Court Trial Program. Youth or teen courts have been implemented as an alternative measure to juvenile courts for handling adolescents who committed delinquent acts, usually for the first time. The purpose of the applied research was to identify…

The United States still has citizens, but it is said that their commitment to the political community is more tenuous than it has ever been. Civic virtue and even civility are in decline, along with moral and political qualities that make a good citizen. U.S. people between the ages of 18 and 25 are conspicuously lacking in the attributes of good…

This paper, which focuses on remediation at community colleges, is part of a series published by the Center for Community College Policy, designed to support state and local policymakers, as well as educational leaders who are interested in policy issues related to the two-year postsecondary sector. Providing academic support for remediation has…

This study assessed the impact of a parent education intervention--the Family Infant and Toddler Learning program (FITL)--on mothers and fathers during the transition to parenthood. The program included 76 middle-class, well-educated parents and their children, of which 89 percent were first-time parents and 10.9 percent were second- or third-time…

The effectiveness of peer mediation in secondary schools is evaluated to determine if the process is beneficial to the disputants. A review of information on the use of mediation in schools is included, and programs in this school system are described. This study investigates perceptions from high school disputants (N=111) in an ethnically diverse…

A case study examined how, in one school, participation in an elementary arts integration program began with one teacher and grew until there were nine volunteers by investigating how the school culture encouraged teachers, administrative support, and theatre's effect on teachers and students. Qualitative data were collected and included…

This digest defines interdisciplinary courses, presents the benefits and challenges of offering them in the community college, and describes six existing interdisciplinary courses at community colleges around the country. Interdisciplinary courses are characterized by the following: they tend to be highly innovative; they incorporate concepts and…

This digest reviews current research on girls' delinquent and violent behavior, the factors contributing to it, and effective programming strategies to prevent it. Girls are more involved in violent crime than they were a decade ago. Their murder rate is up 64%, although status offenses (offenses only because the perpetrator is a minor) continue…

A review of research studied the provision of vocational education and training (VET) in adult and juvenile correctional institutions. Research data and secondary source articles on VET from 1990 to the present were collected from around Australia and, where relevant to the Australian experience, overseas. Findings showed corrections institutions…

The purpose of this paper is to examine Reading Recovery training in relation to three models for teaching and learning: instructor-centered, student-centered, and community-centered. Typically, the theories on which these models are based have been used to predict how children learn and how they should be taught. However, the theories and…

This paper focuses on the administrative support needed to establish a Reading Recovery program that works effectively at school and district levels. It first establishes three important ideas for Reading Recovery to work: leadership is required; change cannot be accomplished in one or two years; and program effectiveness is dependent upon the…

The Kindergarten Readiness Survey (KRS), using data collected by kindergarten teachers across the state, was determined to be an effective way to measure the effect of preschools and childcare settings preparing students to enter the K-12 education system. This approach allows for a more valid evaluation of programs and accurate assessment of…