This newsletter describes the 6-year Supporting Diversity in Schools (SDS) project that seeks to create school environments free of racial prejudice and privilege. It briefly describes the program's working themes: (1) giving a voice to people who have traditionally been silent in the shaping of classroom practices; (2) developing pride in…

This report assesses the Acquisition of Learning by Facilitating Academics (Project ALFA), which is designed to assist the academic progress of Haitian students at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, New York. Project ALFA served a total of 62 students of limited English proficiency who had attended an English-speaking school system for less than 5…

Although returns to military service may have been positive prior to Vietnam, since Vietnam the average veteran has neither benefited nor suffered economically from military service. Educational attainment is the primary reason veterans have earned more than nonveterans. Because the population as a whole has become more educated, military service…

The Maryland State Department of Education undertook a longitudinal study of the Extended Elementary Education Prekindergarten Program (which covers prekindergarten through grade 3) in order to examine the school performance of program participants and a comparable nonpreschool group. The study: (1) investigated effects of prekindergarten on…

This document provides a detailed synopsis of the book "Within Our Reach: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage" (L. B. Schorr). Specific kinds of intervention programs can alter the stunting conditions in which many poor children are raised. It is not necessary to change everything in order to make a difference, and policymakers do not need to wait…

This publication represents the first report tailored to a non-specialist audience from an extensive case study in the Philippines, one of five country studies selected as the first project of the Urban Child Program of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) International Child Development center. The Philippines study focuses explicitly on…

Hearings on the difficulties experienced by Hispanic (Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American) students in entering postsecondary education and ways to assist this population are presented. According to testimony, several legislative programs designed to serve economically disadvantaged students have failed to reach Hispanic students,…

Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN), California's welfare reform program, provides education, job services, and support services to welfare recipients to promote self-sufficiency and eliminate welfare dependency. In 1989, a survey was conducted of all California community colleges to gather information on GAIN participants, services, and…

This document reports activities and findings of a study concerning the California State Job Training Coordinating Council's implementation of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). The study had the following objectives: (1) analyze the structure, role, and administrative policies of the council; (2) determine the effects and benefits of…

The study sought to determine the effects of a summer bridge program on the academic, personal, and social development of underrepresented and low-income students during their first year at the University of California, Los Angeles. The 1988 cohort of students enrolled in the Freshman Summer Program/Transfer Summer Program (FSP/TSP) were tracked…

In the 1980s, the falling incomes and climbing poverty rates characterizing young workers in rural America were closely linked to rapidly changing national and international economic systems. Findings of a recent Senate Budget Committee study indicate that between 1979 and 1987 the share of young workers (ages 16-34) with low-wage jobs increased…

This report presents findings of a three-year evaluation of West Virginia's Community Work Experience Program (CWEP), which requires public service in exchange for welfare payments by able-bodied recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Overall findings indicate that the state has succeeded in its principal objective:…

In the summer of 1986, 564 of the 752 members of the treatment group of the first full-scale implementation of the Summer Training and Education Program (STEP) model returned for their second summer. At the same time, a second cohort consisting of 1,591 youth (765 in the treatment group and 754 in the control group) began their first summer of…

The summer of 1985 marked the first full-scale implementation of the Summer Training and Education Program (STEP) model. Federally funded, STEP provides 14- and 15-year-olds with a paid summer experience that combines work, remediation in reading and math, and life skills instruction with an emphasis on responsible social and sexual attitudes and…

A career training program funded by the Job Training Partnership Act was developed in Loudon County, Tennessee, to alleviate the stresses that are described in the hypothesis that occupational aspirations and expectations are lower for rural, female, economically disadvantaged, and handicapped youth than they are for other youth. To participate,…