Low-performing districts have sought to raise student achievement through adoption of schoolwide models for the reform of literacy instruction, a trend that has intensified under the Reading First Act. This study examined literacy achievement for first graders in a large urban district that offered its schools a choice of literacy reform models.…

A few years ago, most of the students at Lansdowne Elementary were struggling readers: while many could recognize words, half were unable to under stand the stories they'd just read. Not surprisingly, these kids weren't interested in books. The problem wasn't Why Johnnie Can't Read, but more specifically, Why Johnnie Can't Understand--and the…

Accounting for only 1 percent of the total U.S. population, American Indians have a 60 percent to 70 percent high school dropout rate, the highest among all minority groups. At the same time, however, more American Indian students than ever are graduating from high school and leaving their home communities behind in pursuit of a higher education.…

This study examined both continuity and familial, intrapsychic, and environmental predictors of change in adolescent attachment security across a 2-year period from middle to late adolescence. Assessments included the Adult Attachment Interview, observed mother-adolescent interactions, test-based data, and adolescent self-reports obtained from an…

We introduce participatory action research as a strategy for "consultation with." We elaborate the possibilities and limits of participatory consultation as a strategy that enables sustained relations with communities of material poverty and resilience wealth. Consulting with an activist organization, and dedicated to producing a…

The paper highlights the importance of affectivity in school retention in public secondary schools in Guadalajara, Mexico, in a socioeconomic context where the students themselves often decide whether to stay in school or to drop out. In such contexts, students' feelings towards the school and the teachers can become crucial in deciding whether to…

U.S. welfare reforms, whether promoting work first or human capital development, have had in common an emphasis on employment as the key to improving the life chances of children living in single-mother families. We describe in this article a different type of reform--a "third way" in welfare reform. The welfare reforms carried out in…

In this paper, we draw from a narrative life history approach to report in depth on the experiences of one teacher, Shagufta, in a high-poverty urban elementary school in Lahore, Pakistan. The purpose of reporting Shagufta's story is twofold. First, we want to make sense of her role as a science teacher--what should the children in her school…

In the midst of deep transformation in the world economy, women have new problems, and still face hurdles that prevent their full and equitable participation in the labour market. Unceasing economic globalisation and the boom in service industries have increased women's employment, despite the pressure to reduce public sector spending and the…

This article reports findings from a cross-national comparative study that examined the commonalities and differences in professional ideology among social work graduates in 10 countries by studying their attitudes toward poverty and the goals of social work. The major finding is the substantial similarity in the students' professional ideology…

Jacques Ellul argued that modernity's nearly exclusive reliance on science and technology to design society would threaten human freedom. Of particular concern for Ellul was the prospect of the technical milieu overwhelming culture. The commodification of the Volta River in order to modernize Ghana illustrates the Ellulian dilemma of the autonomy…

This study evaluated students? daily implementation of a reciprocal peer tutoring procedure for mathematics and methods for supporting student implementation. Additionally, this study evaluated the reliability of progress monitoring data collected by students. The peer tutoring procedure was designed such that completion of each treatment…

Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we document nonmetropolitan and metropolitan single mothers? economic livelihood strategies. We have three objectives: (1) examine differences in employment, cohabitation, co-residence with other adults, and welfare receipt; (2) evaluate how these livelihood strategies are associated with economic…

Does persistent adversity over time have effects on children's behavior beyond the effects of intermittent or concurrent adversity? This study examined the relations between school behavior in 5th grade (mean age = 11 years 0 months) and indexes representing persistent poverty and contextual risk. The indexes described 2-year intervals of family…

This article describes a viable alternative to hiring full-time certified teachers or to using lay volunteers to provide children at risk of failing in school with academic coaches (tutors). The Academic Coaching Program described herein recruited and trained students enrolled in a university's school of education programs to serve as academic…