Many counties of Western North Carolina have high levels of food insecurity that may be addressed by training communities to grow, prepare, and preserve their own food. A curriculum was developed and tested in 2016 at a Section 8 housing development in Polk County, NC. Research investigated successful community agriculture projects and assessed…

The "Integrated Approaches to Supporting Child Development and Improving Family Economic Security" project was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and Northwestern University for the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human…

Closing the achievement gap has been a national conversation for several decades and a priority for educators and researchers. By looking closely at one school which is showing exceptional success with closing the achievement gap for low income students and English language learners, this study seeks to understand how school personnel and parents…

Underserved schools often have fewer resources and less capacity to rigorously implement improvement strategies. As a result, the districts and schools that most need support programs are often least likely to adopt and implement them successfully--a phenomenon that we call the "needs paradox." To address the needs paradox, we created…

Title VII provides funding for the education of American Indian/Alaska Native students based on a formula grant available to school districts, charter schools, and local education agencies (LEAs). This report explores why some eligible schools and districts do not apply for federal Title VII, potentially resulting in American Indian/Alaska Native…

The information assembled here presents an overall picture of how health education principles were applied in the past decade to health programs serving low-income and minority groups. Ideas, experience, and advice were drawn together from over 100 health education programs, and 17 of these were examined in fine detail at three regional workshops;…

This report points out that although Follow Through, an experimental program designed to find more effective approaches to teaching young children from low-income families, achieved differences in outcome between Follow Through and non-Follow Through children, problems in its initial design and implementation will limit reaching statistically…

An evaluation of the College Aides Program in Baltimore, Maryland, public schools was prepared by an independent agency. This program, funded under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, offers low income college students the opportunity for full time study by providing part time jobs. Students from Morgan State College were…

Opportunities for children and youth to engage in activities during out-of-school hours come in various shapes, sizes and flavors. At one end of the spectrum are highly structured, five-day-a-week, school-based programs focused broadly on encouraging and supporting academic and social development. At the other end are assorted activities and…

Case studies describe the changes occurring in a large urban school system following passage of the Hawkins Stafford Amendments allowing the use of Chapter 1 funding in schoolwide projects (SWPs) in schools where 75 percent or more of students are economically disadvantaged. The potential of SWPs is discussed. (SLD)

Recognizing the inadequacies of the theoretical framework upon which the Concentrated Employment Program (CEP) was constructed, an effort was made to develop a more useful set of assumptions by which the program could be appraised more critically. Summarized in this document are the outcomes of attempts to construct an analytic framework within…

Jumpstart is a growing literacy program that is now active in 17 states in addition to the District of Columbia. The Jumpstart Model pairs children of low-income families with college mentors in the child's typical learning environment. Despite the prevalence and importance of Jumpstart, little has been written about either the general model of…

The University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children conducted an evaluation of the first phase (1995-1998) of the MOST (Making the Most of Out-of-School Time) Initiative of the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds. The objectives of this initiative were to contribute to the supply, accessibility, affordability, and quality of after-school…

A short-term descriptive assessment, this study provides summary data on the Parent-Child Center (PCC) comprehensive early childhood intervention programs initiated in 1967 and operated by the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families. PCCs provide low income families with children under three with social service, health, and educational…

The Career Opportunities Program (COP) is a nationwide career training model to improve the learning of low-income children in poverty area schools by employing low-income community residents and Vietnam veterans as teacher aides, while they attend college in preparation for careers in education. Two questionnaires were used in this study. The…