This Kids Count data book examined trends in the well-being of Oregon's children, focusing on the well-being of preteens. This statistical portrait is based on 12 indicators of child well being: (1) juvenile arrests; (2) teen pregnancy; (3) suicide attempts for 10- to 17-year-olds; (4) high school dropout rate; (5) eighth grade reading…

Dual language programs are bilingual education immersion models designed to address the needs of limited-English-proficient students and native English speakers by proving an additive language approach. In this program, English and Spanish are used for the purpose of developing bilingual and biliteracy skills. The project was structured after the…

Argues that many disabilities among children are increasingly attributable to environmental variables such as violence, poverty, toxic exposure, and family dysfunction. Notes that special education professionals have had primary responsibility for providing specialized services to disabled children and are uniquely qualified to provide resources,…

Addresses the need for teachers in socioeconomically disadvantaged schools to change classroom practice. Examines the disparity between home and school environments, using critical social theory. Describes curriculum negotiation as an active, relevant process, focusing on creating classroom environments that empower students. Discusses the skills…

Critically evaluates the methodologies used in three recent studies on poverty in Latin America. Maintains that some studies measure the relative nature of nutritional poverty while others record the absolute nature of nutritional poverty (physical survival). Includes a comparative analysis of the studies' results. (MJP)

Reviews five books on child poverty and welfare reform: (1) "Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America"; (2) "Welfare System Reform: Coordinating Federal, State and Local Public Assistance Programs"; (3) "Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America"; (4) "Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty and the Underclass"; and (5)…

This paper identifies demographic changes in the areas of poverty, single-parent families, teenage pregnancy, and educational achievement, with emphasis on increased vulnerability of minority populations. It also notes related challenges to the educational system in personnel recruitment and preparation, effective delivery of educational services…

For 2 decades, policymakers have pretended that bureaucratic, state-imposed standards, testing, and sanctions will fundamentally raise all schoolchildren's academic achievement and create productive citizens. The losers have been children of the poor, working class, and undereducated. Policymakers are holding schools and children accountable for…

Many Americans do not have access to adequate medical care. Previous research on this problem focuses primarily on individual-level determinants of access such as income and insurance coverage. The role of community-level factors in helping or hindering individuals in obtaining needed medical care, however, has not received much attention. We…

This article reveals the grounds on which individuals form perceptions of disorder. Integrating ideas about implicit bias and statistical discrimination with a theoretical framework on neighborhood racial stigma, our empirical test brings together personal interviews, census data, police records, and systematic social observations situated within…

School personnel at seven urban elementary schools in a high poverty area were surveyed to determine if a multi-faceted approach to school violence prevention (including a major emphasis on collaboration between community human service agencies and schools) was successful in reducing indicators of violence (bullying, fighting, gang involvement,…

The authors describe various parenting behaviors, such as nurturance, discipline, teaching, and language use, and explain how researchers measure them. They note racial and ethnic variations in several behaviors. Most striking are differences in language use. Black and Hispanic mothers talk less with their young children than do white mothers and…

In this paper we examine differences in upper secondary school attendance among subgroups of the population in Thailand. We ascertain where inequalities continue to exist and where they have been mediated. We analyze data from samples of the 1990 and 2000 Thai censuses. We find that the gender gap favoring boys has closed at the national level and…

It has been acknowledged that children from poverty begin school missing many of the prerequisites for school success. The 1963 US initiative, Head Start, is the major federal program aimed at providing children in poverty the experiences necessary to start school on an equal footing with their same-age peers. This article uses data from the Early…

New Jersey After 3 (NJ After 3) is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to expand and improve afterschool opportunities for New Jersey's youth. Using both public and private resources, it supports a network of youth-service providers that deliver afterschool services based on NJ After 3's program model. Under an agreement with NJ…