The benefits of girls' education include increased family incomes, later marriages, reduced fertility rates, reduced infant and maternal mortality rates, better nourished families, and greater opportunities for women. However, ingrained attitudes towards women are difficult to change. Only when communities believe that the benefits of girls in…

This report describes challenges facing the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, Louisiana, highlighting teacher turnover and teacher preparation and support. Findings are based on national, state, and local studies that investigated the status of teachers and teaching in the community (preparation, recruitment, retention, certification,…

A study examined the unique conditions affecting quality of life for low-income rural children and their families in Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Qualitative data were gathered from 11 focus groups conducted in a variety of rural communities, including tribal reservations, across the three states, and from interviews with professional…

This collection of papers shows the significant achievements that can be made through collective strategies that empower the poor to become active partners in revitalizing their neighborhoods. The 12 chapters are: (1) "The Role of Social Capital in Combating Poverty" (Mark R. Warren, J. Phillip Thompson, and Susan Saegert); (2) "Social Capital and…

This collection of papers reveals the systemic violence, poverty, educational neglect, and social disregard that shape the lives of poor children in the United States. After an introduction, "Savage Policies: Systemic Violence and the Lives of Children" (Valerie Polakow), there are eight chapters: (1) "A Crucible of Contradictions:…

This paper discusses the need to build instructional capacity in high poverty, low performing schools using Title I funding and integrate the corresponding federal policy requirements with state teacher education policies to allow states and districts to develop locally designed partnerships with alternative certification agencies. It recommends…

The Working Poor Project is a joint activity of the Chicago Urban League, the Latino Institute, and Northern Illinois University. Its purpose is to study the nature, extent, and impact of working poverty in seven counties in the Chicago (Illinois) metropolitan area. Phase I of this project developed a statistical profile of the area's working poor…

This paper examines school reform via community organizing in New York City's lowest performing public school districts. It summarizes findings from a national study on community organizing for school reform, profiling 10 community organizing groups. In 2000, researchers conducted surveys of and interviews with all NYC groups currently engaged in…

The Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) serves the highest number of low income and special needs students in the state, struggling to create effective educational environments that respond to students' social and economic needs. While there have been many restructuring efforts through the BCPSS' history, the modern era of school reform…

This paper describes approaches to literacy in Canadian aboriginal communities. It provides statistical data on education, employment, income, culture, language, and social issues among Canadian aboriginal people, comparing aboriginal people on and off the reserve. The statistics demonstrate issues that aboriginal literacy learners bring with them…

The Council of the Great City Schools prepared this report to summarize findings and recommendations that the organization's Strategic Support Teams made during visits to the Richmond Public Schools in the Fall 2003. These teams were requested by the Richmond schools' superintendent and funded by the U.S. Department of Education to review school…

Effective instructional practices are crucial to addressing the educational crisis facing many Hispanic students in the United States. The number of Hispanic students attending public schools has increased dramatically in recent decades, yet Hispanic students as a group have the lowest levels of education and the highest dropout rate of any…

This statistical brief provides a follow-up assessment of the changing demographic and economic landscape of the Midwest between 1980 and 1990. Latino population growth in the Midwest during the 1980s was modest, but since the region's other groups experienced minimal or negative growth, Latino growth accounted for over half the Midwest's total…

The distribution of regulated child care within and between Maryland and Illinois was studied. "Regulated" means all center-based and regulated family child care in the two states. Census data have been linked with child care supply data available from the statewide child care resource and referral networks. It has not been possible to…

This paper presents national data on the extent to which public secondary students are taught core academics by teachers without basic qualifications in their assigned teaching fields, examining whether there are inequalities in the distribution of adequately qualified teachers across and within different U.S. schools. Data came from the 1990-1991…