Historically, afterschool programs have functioned independently with little coordination among provider organizations or agencies, and public and private funders operating in isolation. Research conducted by the National League of Cities for The Wallace Foundation profiled 27 cities that were known to be taking steps to improve coordination among…

More than 5.7 million children lived in extreme poverty in the United States in 2008--surviving on less than $7 or $8 per day. Almost 1 in every 12 children was in a household with an income below 50 percent of the federal poverty line. These children belonged to households in every state of the Union, but they were largely concentrated in the 15…

Social integration in community is especially important for individuals with disabilities well-being. Although individuals with disabilities reside within the community's physical environment, they are often marginalized in the social environment. This may be the result of individuals with disabilities residing in physical environments that…

Nationally, Hispanic achievement lags behind non-Hispanic peers in reading proficiency scores. The gap in achievement persists through subsequent grade levels for Black, Hispanic, and poor students of all races. Current school environments present evidence of dissimilar levels of minority and poverty in schools. Identifiable differences in…

Given the prevalence of child poverty in Canada, its effects inevitably get played out in schools and classrooms. Poverty negatively shapes learning opportunities for students. The Canadian Teachers' Federation's (CTF's) research has found that many low-income children experience reduced motivation to learn, delayed cognitive development, lower…

Equity is a major concern for all development actors. Although Sri Lanka has successfully addressed equity issues in education sector there are unresolved factors and variables those perpetuate inequity. There are emerging new equity issues those that Sri Lanka needs to address. The changing population dynamics and the huge middle class population…

The Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) is a non-profit organization that funds and operates a neighborhood-based system of education and social services for the children of low-income families in a 100 block area in Harlem, New York. The HCZ has received remarkable media attention, including a best-selling book and a "60 Minutes" feature, and…

As Secretary of Education from 1993 to 2001, Richard Riley had serious concerns about out-of-field teaching. The practice--which places in core academic classes instructors who have neither certification nor a major in the subject field taught--just didn't make sense to him. Both when he considered what children were getting in the classroom or…

Throughout the first 157 years of The Children's Aid Society, the economy has cycled through highs and lows, some more severe than the recession individuals are still experiencing. And through them all, Children's Aid has remained strong. The society has always developed new and effective strategies to serve New York City's most vulnerable…

During the past two decades, field linguists have expressed serious concerns over the unprecedented rapid loss of "indigenous languages", the endangerment of many others, and the implications of these processes for the education and economic development of "indigenous populations", among other matters. The book to which this article responds is a…

Recent UK government statements and education policies have emphasized the need to instil a "culture of aspiration" among young people in deprived communities to address social exclusion. Specific proposals include raising the school leaving age to 18 and extending compulsory employment training. These statements and measures express the…

The article examines leisure time socializing and the subjective experience of social isolation among Norwegian 13-16-year-olds in poor families. The empirical analyses use data from a representative survey in Norway in 2002 and show the likelihood of participation in leisure time socializing with peers to be lower among 13-16-year-olds in poor…

Attention to problems of health has traditionally been focused on problems of physical health, in spite of very clear signs that the number of cases of impaired health of a psychosocial and mental character is rising. According to estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), as many as 20 percent of children and adolescents suffer from…

The 10-year anniversary of the first democratic elections in South Africa in 2004 provoked much reflection and fuelled new policy debates on both the progress and failures of educational reform. While a myriad of achievements have been touted and are well-known to international audiences, a swelling critique from inside South Africa shows that…

China is now facing significant challenges in funding its rapidly expanding higher education systems, though it has experienced enormous economic growth in recent years. Equity has become a serious concern in Chinese higher education system. This article tries to identify the causes and implications of under-representation of the rural-poor…