In this paper, the authors use data from interviews and observations in four urban elementary schools, two high and two low performing, to examine how schools respond to high stakes accountability policies. The authors argue that school responses to high stakes accountability depend on school context. In low performing schools, responses focus…

The Teaching Fellows program in New York City was designed to attract individuals interested in an alternative certification process. The present investigation is an exploratory study of Teaching Fellows in a public graduate elementary education program. The department of education placed these alternatively certified teachers in teaching…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of three basic demographic variables on reading test scores for students in the middle elementary grades. Limited English proficiency (LEP), race/ethnicity and socio-economic status (SES) were studied to determine their influence individually and in combination on performance in large-scale…

Using the sub-samples drawn from the National Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten (ECLS-K) database, this study examines similarities and differences between African-American and Asian-American parents in their parenting practice (i.e., parental involvement at home, expectations of child, emotional expressiveness, school involvement,…

This report highlights the social changes underway in Miami-area schools, discussing their implications for metropolitan growth policies. It focuses on changes in the racial and economic composition of elementary schools between 1993-2002. Data come from the Common Core of Data of the National Center for Education Statistics. Results indicate that…

This study examines whether some English and Welsh secondary schools have consistently lost market share since 1988, whether the same schools are becoming relatively more socially disadvantaged in socioeconomic terms, whether the schools are in a spiral of decline, and whether the spirals of decline are caused by school choice. It outlines changes…

This study examined the effects of paternal and maternal job loss on changes in Black and White early adolescents' academic achievement, school attendance, locus of control, and self-concept. It also investigated whether the effects of parental job loss could be explained by contemporaneous changes in parental behavior. Analysis of data on 8th…

Over recent years, there has been an explosion in the collection of state and local level child and youth indicator data by federal statistical agencies and in the dissemination of those data through agency Web sites. This paper reviews these resources and provides information needed to access the data. Data sources are presented in five topical…

This article describes affirmative development, a concept designed to complement colloquial notions of affirmative action, which emphasizes the creation and enhancement of competence in addition to the more traditional emphasis on the equitable reward of competence. In 1903 and 1958, W.E.B. DuBois examined whether 20th century problems related to…

This report illustrates how poverty rates vary by selected characteristics (age, race, and Hispanic origin, nativity, family composition, work experience, and geography), using data from the Census Bureau's March 2001 Current Population Survey. The 2000 poverty rate dropped half a percentage point from 1999, to 11.3 percent. This decrease was not…

Multiple sources were used to study the status of children in the District of Columbia, and recommendations for the improvement of their living conditions and opportunities are made based on these findings. The health and well-being of children in the U.S. capital lag behind the rest of the nation. One in 3 children in the District of Columbia…

This book shows that inequalities in children's cognitive abilities are substantial from the beginning, with disadvantaged children starting kindergarten with significantly lower cognitive skills than their more advantaged counterparts. These same disadvantaged children are then placed in low-resource schools, magnifying the initial inequality.…

This short paper examined the effects of marriage on eligibility for student assistance programs. Being married as a student has a number of possible effects on eligibility for student assistance depending on one's age and the employment status of one's partner. A few are positive; they result in greater eligibility for assistance. Some are…

This study identified the associations between maternal racial socialization practices and child developmental outcomes by examining the effect of poverty, maternal temperament, positive affect, and social support on socialization. The sample included 51 8- and 9-year-old African American girls of various socioeconomic levels from the Girls'…

This report focuses on two of New York City's emerging Latino populations, Colombians and Dominicans. The purpose is to present baseline data on socioeconomic indicators, economic status and labor force participation, and immigration and naturalization characteristics. When the information is available, comparative data are presented for other…