According to Fordham University's 1996 "Index of Social Health," our society's overall well-being is decreasing significantly. Today's children are not sufficiently shielded from adult economic, political, and sexual forces. Children's social world has become poisonous, due to escalating violence, the potentially lethal consequences of…

Describes an eight-phase model for project-based learning via the Internet: watching, wondering, webbing, wiggling, weaving, wrapping, waving, and wishing. Highlights Internet research tools as well as Internet and print resources for an investigation of homelessness, hunger, and poverty; and provides introductory activities using Internet…

Summarizes what is known about child abuse, describes the overlap between poverty and child maltreatment, and presents a framework for understanding different levels of government intervention. It concludes with a proposal of an alternative to child protective intervention in poverty-related cases, offers a plan for implementation, and assesses…

Analyzes the economic and social characteristics of impoverished long-term immigrants, their uniqueness compared to poor natives, and the factors associated with economic success or failure. The implications of welfare reform as it negatively impacts low-income immigrants is addressed. (GR)

In "Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment," James Garbarino's nostalgic recollection of family, school, and neighborhood life in the 1950s becomes the utopian antecedent for a comparative bashing of contemporary times. Although racial stratification and social/economic marginality compromise 1990s families' child-raising…

The second in three-part series on how the principals in 10 low-performing/high-poverty schools met the challenge of Florida's 1999 high-stakes testing and accountability initiative. Examines the challenges principals faced in trying to build organizational capacity from three perspectives: principals' beliefs and values, "it takes a whole…

Children of migrant farmworkers face many obstacles (poverty, geographic and cultural isolation, discrimination, language minority status, and mobility). Congress established the Title I Migrant Education Program to enable them to meet the same standards as other children. States that oversee Title I migrant education programs have created…

Interviews with low-income, American Indian, single parents on the Rosebud Reservation in Todd County, South Dakota, included families who were on and who had left Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Welfare reform issues discussed included transportation problems; access to affordable, quality child care; food insecurity; and the scarcity of…

Examines the factors that explain why teachers are able to accurately predict their students' future reading ability in a longitudinal study from first- to third-grade in children exposed to poverty. Notes that virtually all of the shared variance between teacher ratings and later reading skills was explained by prior levels of emergent literacy.…

The Committee for Economic Development notes, America must invest in tomorrow's "world class" work force. Society must increase its financial investment in children because those born into poverty and neglect often have deprivations impairing learning ability. Investment in early childhood programs is a way to increase children's chances…

Discusses author's observations of poverty-related problems within rural Sri Lankan schools. Juxtaposes literature on Third World education problems at national, district, school, and individual levels. Concludes high educational expectations in developing world are tightly constrained by poverty, negative attitudes, and weaknesses of systems.…

Infants of depressed mothers who were visited at home outperformed infants of depressed mothers who received no intervention services by an average of 10 points on the Bayley Mental Scale and were twice as likely to be classified as securely attached. Unserved, high-risk infants showed a high rate of insecure-disorganized attachments. (RH)

While homelessness results from a variety of factors, ultimately its cause is an insufficient supply of suitable housing. The Federal government must massively intervene to halt the loss of additional low-income housing units, and benefits paid to the welfare-dependent population must approximately double. (MW)

Discusses the origins of biological risks and their potential consequences for prepregnancy, prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods. Presents epidemiological data. Addresses issues of assessment of infant development and interventions provided for infants whose development is at risk. Highlights goals for prevention. A nationally derived data…

Examines cross-metropolitan variation in Puerto Rican poverty rates using an instrumental variables regression model. The analysis highlights the roles of residential segregation and economic restructuring on Puerto Rican poverty rates in 1970 and 1980. During the 1970s, the contributory effects of segregation grew stronger, whereas the…