A key policy response to continuing concerns about levels of poverty and social exclusion in the United Kingdom has been the promotion of integrated children's services, involving professionals from education, social work, health and other fields working together on an inter-agency basis. This small-scale qualitative research project, using an…

For five years the major school reform agenda in America has been the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which was part of the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Now ESEA is up for another reauthorization by Congress, and everyone is wondering what is going to happen next. One could argue that there is…

Recent government education policies seem to assume that academic achievement as measured by test scores is the primary objective of public education. A prime example is the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires schools to bring all of their students to "proficient" levels on math and reading tests by 2014. Many state…

In this investigation we examined the relation of children's reported feelings about school during kindergarten or first grade to their academic achievement at the end of fifth grade. Participants were children (N=103) who lived in poverty during early childhood and who were placed on individualized education programs (IEPs) during their…

Zambia, a central African country of about 10 million people, is currently exposed to the nonsubjective forces of globalization, including institutional weaknesses such as high unemployment rated and chronic levels of poverty that ipso facto problematize its governance and social development priorities. The first part of the article focuses on an…

This article draws on findings from a larger international study and the literature to examine successful principals of challenging high-poverty schools in the USA, England, and Australia. Specifically, this article reports case-study findings for 13 challenging schools, 4 each in the USA and Australia and 5 in England. Findings from this study…

Context: Diabetes self-management is important for achieving successful health outcomes. Different levels of self-management have been reported among various populations, though little is known about ownership of equipment that can enhance accomplishment of these tasks. Purpose: This study examined diabetes self-management equipment ownership…

South Africa has a Gini co-efficient of 62, one of the world's highest (Finmark: Project FinScope 2004 and 2005, FinMark Trust, Johannesburg). Hence, measures of wealth are ubiquitous social indicators in South Africa. However, a growing emphasis in government towards measurable service delivery targets and remedial action to redress the…

From 1952 onwards, following the approval of the "Second Five-year Plan," a series of profound changes took place in the Argentinean national curriculum and in its schoolbooks. Some authors have pointed out that such changes implied the use of the educational system as an "agency for indoctrination." Other authors have…

Connecticut's school-accountability law, Connecticut General Statute 10-220(c), requires reporting on a broad-based system of educational indicators that include measures of student needs, school resources, school performance (process), and student performance. This paper presents findings of a study that, using information from Connecticut's…

This book describes the process of developing comprehensive health education programs in rural areas. Six school districts in the Pacific Northwest teamed up with specialists from five universities, an educational service district, and a regional educational laboratory to develop the curricula. The book includes an introduction, a summary, and…

This brief summarizes some of the highlights of the book "State Tax Relief for the Poor," by David S. Liebschutz and Steven D. Gold. It examines the policies that states can adopt to provide tax relief for the poor. Although poor families are generally exempt from the federal income tax, they still pay a large amount of taxes to state and local…

The videotape "Central American Children Speak: Our Lives and Dreams" begins and ends in a U.S. classroom where students are studying Central America. The video, which was designed to help children gain a basic understanding of one another, follows seven Central American children through a typical day of school, work, and play. Their…

The number of poor children in the United States is high, and estimates suggest that poverty among Indiana's children is increasing at twice the national rate. Presently, Indiana does not have readily available, comprehensive information about the state's children and adolescents. There are few ways to link Indiana's poverty data to other…

Funding was received for a long overdue serious study of inner-city decay in Canada. Presented are the hypotheses and research methods for this projected study. The first policy challenge is providing evidence of the extent and seriousness of inner-city decay in Canada, particularly since urban difficulties are often presumed to be a problem in…