This paper examines the way in which some schools are redefining the community-school link and discusses research on schools offering services to the community. It describes how social services provided by schools affect education and the extent to which schools that take an ecological approach to schooling provide a sense of efficacy and…

These papers, presented at a symposium on African American fathers, examine issues related to the seven "Core Learnings" of the National Center on Fathers and Families, particularly those related to fathers' caring, joblessness, and role transitions. The papers connect issues across school, work, and personal development that contribute…

This guide is designed to help social workers, social activists, members of religious organizations, police officers, urban planners, and anyone interested in working with disadvantaged people. Case studies and examples from the experiences of real people are given to make the discussion practical. Each chapter contains a series of questions and…

Many experts have endorsed small schools as educationally effective, often adding parenthetically that smaller size is especially beneficial for impoverished students. A recent series of studies, the "Matthew Project," bolsters these claims. This digest reviews recent thinking about small school size, describes the Matthew Project…

This 2000 study re-evaluated the type of child care information given to parents on public assistance by caseworkers. It assessed whether laws protecting low-income parents' rights were being followed and whether people on public assistance were receiving appropriate information about child care. The study was a follow up to a 1999 study.…

This collection of essays discusses excellence and achievement in urban schools. "Needed: Excellent Teachers for Urban Schools" (Diane Ravitch) suggests that the best thing to do to help urban students is to ensure that they have excellent teachers. "Beyond the Courage to Change Urban School Systems" (Rudolph F. Crew) discusses…

This report examines patterns of poverty using seven different measures: average monthly poverty, episodic poverty, chronic poverty, annual poverty, poverty spells, poverty entry rates, and poverty exit rates. Data come from the 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and reflect the dynamics of poverty from 1996-1999.…

Conventional anti-poverty efforts have failed because they have not created the structures for the poor to help themselves, and they are designed and controlled by people outside of the affected communities. Introduced in 1968 by the National Association of the Southern Poor, the Assembly is a non-political structure that organizes community…

In 1999 and 2000, immigrants in Los Angeles, California, and New York, New York were aurveyed about their status in the context of welfare reform, examining the living conditions of 3,447 immigrant families roughly 3 years after welfare reform was implemented and several months before the federal government issued guidance about the public charge…

Although America has committed itself to building a rigorous public educational system, student achievement gaps and low-performing schools continue to exist. Schools with high proportions of students of color and students from poverty are less likely to offer a challenging curriculum. State systems of standards and accountability have often been…

Between 1990-2000, there was a decrease in the number of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods, but the picture provided by the decrease in poverty levels alone is incomplete and potentially misleading. Using a more comprehensive measure of neighborhood quality, researchers found that the number of children living in severely distressed…

This report describes the degree and nature of hardship among low-income and poor working and nonworking families in a nationally representative sample of kindergartners--the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (Kindergarten Cohort). Five hardship indicators were examined: (1) lack of child health insurance; (2) child has not seen doctor at least…

With a unique focus on the effects of poverty on parenting in Britain, this book explores what professionals and policy makers can do to support families living in poverty. The book details findings and conclusions of a large national study of parents living in poverty conducted by the Policy Research Bureau between 1997 and 1999. The study…

This report compares the status of women and men on such measures as age, marital status, educational attainment, occupation, income, and poverty status. Findings are based on data collected by the Census Bureau in the Annual Demographic Supplement to the March 2002 Current Population Survey. Overall, women slightly outnumber men in the total…

This report presents information from a 1999 meeting on teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention in hard-to-staff schools. The meeting was attended by 27 education leaders from around the country. It sought to exchange information and ideas about the problems of securing teachers for hard-to-staff schools, determine the extent of consensus…