Poverty is a strong predictor of lack of academic success in reading, and schools serving high-poverty populations are more likely to show weak performance in high-stakes tests. But some schools manage to beat these odds, with students outperforming peers from more advantaged neighborhoods. Why? The author showcases six high-poverty schools where…

This article describes Fifth Dimension, an after-school program which mixes play and computer games to improve the education and social skills of mostly poor, disadvantaged kids. Although Fifth Dimension seems tailor-made for a poor, rural community, its roots are urban. The after-school program was founded by a group of researchers in San Diego…

In August of 1996 Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which President Bill Clinton then signed into law. This essay will address the question, how have American Indian reservation residents fared in relation to the new work requirements? The authors are interested in the consequences of…

Adequacy is a key issue propelled by high court decisions across the states. Initially the equity of funding systems that resulted in "savage inequalities" between school districts within a state based on property wealth was at issue. However, just since 1989, with the state supreme court decision in Kentucky finding the system…

A persistent and pervasive disparity in academic achievement exists between ethnic minority and English Learner students and their White and Asian peers. This qualitative single-case study of a high-poverty, high-performing middle school focused on the cultural norms, practices, and programs that were perceived to be contributing to narrowing the…

This latest annually produced Iowa Kids Count data book, "Iowa Kids Count 2009: Trends in the Well-Being of Iowa Children," provides data on 18 different indicators of child and family well-being at the United States, Iowa, substate and county-level. The 18 indicators presented in the data book contain an expanse of data from economic,…

"The Condition of Education 2017" is a congressionally mandated annual report summarizing the latest data on education in the United States. This report is designed to help policymakers and the public monitor educational progress. This year's report includes 50 indicators on topics ranging from prekindergarten through postsecondary…

Children in immigrant families account for nearly one-in-four children in the U.S. They are the fastest growing population of children, and they are leading the nation's racial and ethnic transformation. As a consequence, baby-boomers will depend heavily for economic support during retirement on race-ethnic minorities, many of whom grew up in…

Newark's image has begun to change in recent years. High-profile construction projects downtown and a boom in new housing have been among the visible signs of change. Improvements on measures of child and family well-being have added to the impression of the city moving in a positive direction. Child poverty rates fell in recent years. Incomes…

This review paper, prepared for the forthcoming Russell Sage volume Changing Poverty, considers the ability of different education policies to improve the learning outcomes of low-income children in America. Disagreements on this question stem in part from different beliefs about the problems with our nation's public schools. In our view there…

Since the 1996 Peace Accords ended the Guatemalan civil war, the country has made strides to legally recognize the rights of its indigenous peoples and has criminalized racial discrimination. However, political exclusion, discrimination, and economic marginalization of indigenous peoples still regularly occur due to the lack of resources and…

For the past eight years, Midwest Educational Research Consortium (MERC), located at Western Michigan University, received two multi-million dollar grants through a U.S. Department of Education program entitled Gaining Early Awareness and Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP). GEAR UP is a school/university partnership using a cohort model with the…

To examine Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham-IV (SNAP-IV) psychometric properties, parent (N = 1,613) and teacher (N = 1,205) data were collected from a random elementary school student sample in a longitudinal attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) detection study. SNAP-IV reliability was acceptable. Factor structure indicated two ADHD factors…

In the Republic of Zambia, an estimated 256,000 persons have some form of disability, and of these, 5.4% have intellectual disabilities. Even now, traditional beliefs about the etiology of intellectual disabilities persist and considerable stigma is attached to the presence of persons with intellectual disabilities who are often excluded from…

The high dropout rate in urban high schools, particularly among poor and racial minority youth, continues to be a vexing problem confronting public education in the U.S. Although much research and many prevention efforts have been devoted to this issue, dropout rates continue to soar. In this article, the authors present a case study analysis of…