In the United States, low marriage rates and high divorce rates among the poor have led policymakers to target this group for skills- and values-based interventions. The current research evaluated the assumptions underlying these interventions; specifically, the authors examined whether low-income respondents held less traditional values toward…

The study examined the extent to which a service trip to Nicaragua affected college students' narrative understanding of themselves and their commitment to volunteer service. College students who went on a spring break service trip to work with poor citizens of Nicaragua wrote narrative accounts of three important experiences on the trip shortly…

We examine the perception of social exclusion and quality of life and their interactions among a group of Turkish citizens. For this purpose we used the social exclusion scale developed by Jehoel-Gijsbers and Vrooman and the WHOQOL-BREF scale. The study group consists of 2,493 participants who are residents of a city in Turkey. Our study was based…

The communities in the Black Belt South and Central Appalachian regions in the United States share long histories of persistent subjugation. Both regions also have strong traditions of partnerships between grassroots activists and scholars--partnerships that have, at times, lent resilient responses to political, economic and cultural challenges,…

Throughout the profession's history, family and consumer sciences professionals have worked to consider what should be done about various social issues affecting individuals, families, and communities across the world. Hunger is a global issue pertaining to the right to life, human survival, sustainable communities, and promotion of healthy…

Children who have been born into poverty or into at-risk circumstances are often considered "disposable" and not a societal priority. These youngsters have few advocates and limited successful options in life. In the city of Maracaibo, Venezuela, there is a large population of Amerindians who are called Guajiros. These indigenous people…

Despite fundamental reforms to South African education, large performance gaps still prevail between former black schools and former white schools. Nineteen years into a democracy and education in post-apartheid South Africa still retains a strong racial dimension between poorer communities and more affluent communities. Differential access to…

The Fostering Hope Initiative is a neighborhood-based Collective Impact initiative that promotes optimum child and youth development by supporting vulnerable families, encouraging connections between neighbors, strengthening systems to ensure collective impact, and advocating for family-friendly public policy. This article describes the…

This article, written by three research-active teachers with the support of their academic partner, interrogates the achievement-attendance link in the most recent government quantitative data for secondary schools in England: persistent absentees stands at 6.6% for all children, but it raises to 9% for students who are classed as "Pupil…

Professional Development Schools (PDS) were intended to be a comprehensive approach to total-school reform targeted toward the effects of poverty and educational disadvantage. This paper examines the processes and contexts found in PDSs and tests how they might be logically and empirically linked to measurable improvements in achievement. The…

Recent social policy discourses in Aotearoa New Zealand focus on vulnerable children's well-being and the detrimental, long-term and costly impacts of child poverty. The discourse pervading much of the policy labels children and young people as "vulnerable" or "at risk" or "in crisis", a view, which we argue, is both…

Arts education and special education within public schools have faced similar challenges in the wake of school reform. Services and programming have been reduced, leaving a larger gap in resources and accessibility. Because of loopholes in policy, new reform initiatives such as vouchers and charter schools will continue to marginalize students…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the extent to which students with Aboriginal status receive disproportionate rates of office discipline referrals (ODRs) and more severe administrative consequences relative to students without Aboriginal status. The participants were 1,750 students in five rural British Columbia and Alberta…

Educational achievement is a key determinant of future life chances, but children growing up in poverty tend to do worse by many academic measures. Family, school, and neighborhood contextual characteristics may affect academic outcomes. In an attempt to explore neighborhood and individual-level factors, we performed multilevel analyses to explain…

A socio-psychological analytical framework will be adopted to illuminate the relation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. The framework puts the emphasis to incorporate micro familial factors into macro factor of the tracking system. Initially, children of the poor families always lack major prerequisite: diminution of cognitive…