The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of Pennsylvania school library programs on student learning--specifically, the infrastructure (staffing, budgets, collections, technology, and access hours) that contributes most to student achievement, the costs and benefits associated with them, and the gap between current Pennsylvania school…

This report sets out the latest internationally comparable data on child deprivation and relative child poverty. Taken together, these two different measures offer the best currently available picture of child poverty across the world's wealthiest nations. Previous reports in this series have shown that failure to protect children from poverty is…

The authors investigated whether age at kindergarten entry was associated with early literacy achievement gaps and if these gaps persisted over time. Using the kindergarten age eligibility cutoff date, they created 2 groups of students who represented the oldest and youngest children in a cohort of students in high-poverty, low-performing schools.…

Tobacco has been an agricultural staple from the time of the first recorded European encounter with the plant in the fifteenth century. The pervasive nature of its cultivation and consumption has made tobacco one of the most profitable crops in world agricultural history. This case study examines the role of tobacco in the global marketplace with…

"Outlook" is the monthly newsletter for the Council for American Private Education (CAPE). Each issue contains information relating to private education such as: new legislation and regulations, the most recent research, court rulings, national trends, federal initiatives, private school news briefs, and more. This issue includes: (1)…

Although the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) help ensure that many low-income children have enough nutritious food to eat, some studies have suggested that the programs could be more efficient and cost-effective. In particular, concerns have been raised about erroneous payments that reimburse schools for…

Among the distinguishing characteristics of higher education in the United States is the stunning range of founding belief systems and missions. Many of the nation's colleges and universities were created out of passion to educate women, ministers, African Americans, immigrants, the rural poor; to advance causes, to educate within a particular…

This article profiles Wanda Bamberg, superintendent of the Aldine (Texas) Independent School District. Bamberg is used to high expectations regardless of the circumstances. She is a firecracker of sorts who talks much and expects much from her staff members, teachers, and students, who are mostly at-risk, Black and Hispanic, and economically…

For over 20 years, Advocates for Children of New Jersey has published the Newark Kids Count Data Book, a one-stop source for child well-being data on the state's largest city. Newark Kids Count includes the latest statistics, along with five-year trend data, in the following areas: demographics, family economic security, food insecurity, child…

In this book, the authors present a new kind of interdisciplinary pedagogy that brings together antipoverty grassroots activism and relevant social theories about poverty. Closely linked to the Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary, this unique book combines the oral history of a renowned antipoverty organizer with accessible…

This study examines the first four years of Tennessee's Voluntary Prekindergarten program, directed to four-year-olds eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. It reviews participation levels and trends for the program as a whole, for collaborative partner classrooms, and for student and district subgroups and discusses the geographic distribution…

This causal-comparative study examined the effects of the collaborative leadership style provided by professional learning communities (PLCs) on the students' Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) mean Value-Added achievement scores in language arts and mathematics. The study used twenty-nine selected middle schools in eight different…

Broadening computer science learning to include more students is a crucial item on the United States' education agenda, these authors say. Although policymakers advocate more computer science expertise, computer science offerings in high schools are few--and actually shrinking. In addition, poorly resourced schools with a high percentage of…

In this article, the author draws together the diverse approaches to equity and widening participation found in the innovative international research conducted in Ghana and Tanzania by contrast with those in the "global North", using the United Kingdom as a case study. In particular, the author considers the utility of equity scorecards…

This commentary explores a central issue for our times, online reading comprehension. It first defines three issues that have largely gone unnoticed as the Internet enters our classrooms: (1) literacy has become deictic; (2) effective online information use requires additional online reading comprehension practices, skills, and dispositions; and…