Vocabulary knowledge is an important predictor of literacy and broader academic outcomes, and children's literature is a rich source of sophisticated vocabulary. This study investigated the effect of providing instruction in word meanings as an adjunct to story-book read-aloud sessions in Grade One classrooms. The main intervention programme ran…

As communications students learn to tell stories, the curriculum should teach them to cover diverse groups accurately. Scholars have studied coverage of diversity in gender, nationality, ethnicity, and race. One area that has seen less attention is economic diversity, in particular, coverage of the poor. This paper examines how service-learning…

The birth of a child can be a simultaneously joyous and challenging time for families. Virtually all parents will struggle with the enormous physical and emotional demands of parenting a very young child, but for too many California families those challenges are additionally compounded by poverty, housing instability, lack of social support, or…

Students' basic reading and math skills can decline significantly during the summer months. Most attribute this to the prolonged period during which young students are outside of a structured learning environment (Cooper et al 1996). While summer learning loss occurs among all income groups, the effects are more pronounced for those from…

READS (Reading Enhances Achievement During Summer) has been implemented in North Carolina schools for the past several years as part of an Investing in Innovation (i3) validation grant that began in fall 2010. This paper focuses on the Year 3 study and compares the Year 3 results to the Year 1 and Year 2 results, and the results of earlier…

This report discusses the second year of Austin Independent School District's (AISD) High Dosage Tutoring Program: students' progress, program summaries, and participant survey results.

The belief that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education initiatives have the potential to stimulate both regional and national economies has prompted policy makers and funding agencies to revisit how STEM teachers are recruited, prepared, and retained. This article investigates the impact of a unique prescholarship…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the impact of the READ 180 reading intervention program upon the affective and cognitive reading skills of 21 struggling ninth grade at-risk students at a Title I high school in Southern California. There was minimal qualitative analysis of the READ 180 program at the secondary level…

This book, for the first time ever, critically examines the role of full service and extended schools. The authors draw on their extensive international evaluations of this radical new phenomenon to ask: (1) What do extended or full service schools hope to achieve, and why should services based on schools be any more effective than services…

"Uncertain Times 2012," conducted by the Afterschool Alliance between April 25 and June 8, 2012, assesses the impact of economic conditions on afterschool programs. While many studies have evaluated the impact of programs, "Uncertain Times" is the only research to examine the fiscal health of afterschool programs and their…

"Creating a Financial Stake in College" is a four-part series of reports that focuses on the relationship between children's savings and improving college success. This series examines: (1) why policymakers should care about savings, (2) the relationship between inequality and bank account ownership, (3) the connections between savings and college…

Children's characteristics, including gender, influence their development by eliciting differential responses from their environments, and by influencing differential responses to their environments. Parenting-related stress, associated with poverty environments, negatively influences children's language, likely through its impact on parent-child…

This paper presents a reform initiative, the Supporting Montreal Schools Program (SMSP), created by the government of Quebec to assist 184 low socio-economic-status schools in Montreal implement seven reform strategies prescribed by the government. On a regular basis, the professional team of the SMSP engages in reflection and research with…

The study reviewed in this paper examined the effects of offering a school-wide teacher performance bonus program on students' reading and mathematics achievement. The study sample included 309 high-poverty New York City public schools serving students in grades K-8 from 2007-08 to 2008-09. Of these schools, 181 were randomly chosen to be offered…

A passion to ensure the educational and life success of all children, particularly young African American men, has propelled my work for all of my professional life. Although following one's passion can make for a fulfilling life, passion is not enough to create a successful and sustainable nonprofit organization. Like many leaders in the…