Public and private schooling have a roughly uniform effect on achievement, but variability among students' home and neighborhood environments mask the leveling effect. Includes an historical discussion of egalitarianism and stratification in American education. (PS)

Using High School and Beyond longitudinal data for 1980, this paper shows that government subsidized student aid substantially improved access to higher education for low income individuals. The analysis also shows that wealth neutrality (equal probability of college attendance across all incomes) was not achieved. (10 references) (MLH)

The Neugarten Life Satisfaction Index A (LSIA) was completed by 760 randomly selected farm residents in an upper midwest state. Significant differences were found between mean LSIA scores according to subjects' education level and income but not age or gender. Generally, as education and income level increased, life satisfaction increased. (JHZ)

Given the gap between the low average income of Hispanic families and the high cost of postsecondary education, financial aid must be offered to potential Hispanic college students. Moreover, schools must actively provide Hispanic parents with financial aid program information. (KH)

Noting that there is a need to understand characteristics of the Head Start program, the children and families it serves, and how these have changed since the last reauthorization in 1998, this policy brief is the first of a series of analyses of Head Start Program Information Report (PIR) data by the Center for Law and Social Policy. All Head…

This digest uses recent statistics, including Census 2000 data, to synthesize information on Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) children and families. The APIA population is diverse, and APIA groups vary widely in language, religion, beliefs, and health practices. The percentage of foreign born differs widely among APIA groups. The U.S.…

Maintaining a high service rate (defined as the proportion of high school graduates enrolling at a University of Wisconsin (UW) System institution for the following fall term) for Wisconsin high school graduates is one of the goals identified in the second phase of accountability reporting by the UW System. The population of 1999 Wisconsin high…

The new Labour Government in Britain has made the reduction of child poverty one of its central objectives. This paper describes the specific initiatives involved in Labour's approach and weighs them in terms of their potential impact. After setting out the extent of the problem of child poverty, the causes are discussed, and Britain's problem is…

This paper reviews research on processes linking low incomes, deprived neighborhoods, and adverse outcomes for British children, identifying gaps and limitations in existing datasets and research strategies. Four domains are examined: education, health and psychological outcomes, crime and related behavior, and items linked to transitioning to…

This report provides detailed information on the child poverty rates in Toronto from 1990 to 1998. The report card offers income data for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It includes new income data for Toronto from the Family Databank of Statistics Canada. This databank uses information reported by all income tax filers and from the Canada Child Tax…

This policy brief provides an introduction for a series of 10 such briefs examining policies that seek to increase family income by encouraging, supporting, and rewarding parental work. The purpose of the series is to synthesize what is known from research about the effectiveness of various policies in increasing parental employment, either by…

This paper describes a current national study funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS). SEELS is a 6-year study (1999-2005) that will document the school experiences of a national sample of school-age students with disabilities by following students as they move from elementary…

This report provides a profile of middle income undergraduates in comparison to their lower income and higher income counterparts and examines where middle income students enroll by price of attendance and how they and their families pay for college. Data are from the 1995-1996 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:96). Middle income…

We analyse in detail the factors that lead to intergenerational persistence among sons, where this is measured as the association between childhood family income and later adult earnings. We seek to account for the level of income persistence in the 1970 BCS cohort and also to explore the decline in mobility in the UK between the 1958 NCDS cohort…

In this analysis we seek to shed light on the extent to which credit constraints may affect individuals' choices to stay in full-time education past the age of 16 and to complete higher education (HE) qualifications in the United Kingdom, and on how this has varied between individuals born in 1958 and in 1970. The observed correlation between…