Because the District of Columbia (DC) is a federal district, its governance is peculiar. The DC public school system is plagued by poor management, internal strife, unstable leadership, low student achievement, shrinking enrollment, and declining community confidence. During the 1960s, Mayor Barry and the civil rights-home rule movement brought…

Title III, the Strengthening Institutions Program, is one of the most important federal programs for rural community colleges. Created by the Higher Education Act of 1965, Title III provides institutional aid to qualified colleges and universities that serve large numbers of first-generation, low-income students and students from groups…

This report presents national, regional, and state profiles of the target population for adult education, that is, those individuals aged 16 years and over, who have not attained a high school diploma or equivalent and are not currently enrolled in school. The tables contained in this report describe the following characteristics of the target…

This book offers new insights and information on why students in high-poverty schools struggle with literacy achievement and what specific factors promote success. Findings from a unique study are translated into clear recommendations for enriching the classroom environment at different grade levels and helping all children, including English…

The relationships among community characteristics and community well-being were examined for all 366 rural California communities with a population of 1,000-2,000. High proportions of Latinos and new immigrants in a community population were positively related to unemployment, percent children, and employment in agriculture, and negatively related…

The essays in this collection, presented as letters to teachers, reaffirm Paulo Freire's place as the most significant educator in the world during the last half of the 20th century. As North America experiences a rapid change to conditions approximating those of the Third World, Freire's pedagogy becomes more important, not only for his methods…

The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) is a welfare reform initiative based on enhancing welfare recipients' incentives to get a job and requiring long-term welfare recipients to participate in employment-focused activities. The effects of the MFIP were compared to those of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program through…

This collection presents the work of four psychologists who use scientific inquiry to understand what helps and what hinders the academic and life performance of minority students and girls. The first selection, "School Desegregation 40 Years After 'Brown v. Board of Education': Looking Forward and Looking Backward" by Janet Ward Schofield,…

Founded by the federal government in 1966 as an educational research documentation network, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) has evolved in both scope and philosophy over the past years. This publication is a tribute to the ERIC program as it enters its fourth decade. The contents, which were chosen to chronicle the progress of…

The validity of the notion that welfare receipt is equivalent to "dependency" and work represents "self-sufficiency" was examined in a qualitative study during which 214 recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and 165 low-wage single mothers in 4 U.S. cities were interviewed. The women were contacted…

Access to affordable, quality child care is a major barrier to successful employment for many families. About one-fifth of families return to welfare within a few months of leaving, with lack of accessible child care and transportation being the most frequently cited reasons. These issues are likely to be compounded in the rural South. Information…

More than 30 years after the Great Society initiatives, poverty continues to put large numbers of students at risk of school failure. The challenges to education and life success are most severe for children in the nation's poorest rural counties, the 535 rural persistent poverty (RPP) counties. This digest provides background on RPP counties and…

Noting that child poverty has been a persistent problem for Arkansas children despite improvements in the economy, this Kids Count special report focuses on child poverty in Arkansas. The report examines how child poverty is measured and notes the limitation of existing poverty data; it also discusses the causes and consequences of poverty and…

This paper describes the Academic Summer Camp (ASC) initiated at The Accelerated School (TAS), the country's first charter accelerated school. The ASC delivers educational services to K-7 children and their parents in south central Los Angeles. Students are 40 percent African American and 60 percent Latino, and most qualify for the federal free…

This report describes patterns of racial enrollment and segregation in U.S. public schools at the national, regional, state, and district levels using the 2000-01 NCES Common Core of Data. Trends in desegregation and resegregation over the last one-third century are also examined. Whites are the most segregated group, attending schools that are,…