In the year 1998, California began a massive experiment that focused on testing students and holding teachers and administrators accountable for results. The goal: dramatic, system-wide improvement. Schools' performance began to be measured using California's Academic Performance Index (API). In 2001, with passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB),…

According to a recent study by the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics, poverty and social exclusion have been taken very seriously by this Government, resulting in high-profile targets, new policies and funding streams. Social exclusion was recognised to consist of multi-faceted and interlinked…

The Skills Reinforcement Project was designed to increase basic mathematics and language arts skills of disadvantaged and minority youth. Forty-five minority and economically disadvantaged sixth graders who participated in a 110-hour program made statistically greater gains in mathematics than 45 comparison sixth graders and nonsignificant gains…

Author and advocate for public school reform Herbert Kohl discusses vouchers; charter schools; home schooling; national academic standards; high stakes testing; the role of the arts, storytelling, and fun in education; countering school failure; and the importance of developing teacher communities that cut across public, private, and home school…

Reviews the policy context in which the Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration program was designed and implemented, and describes how enhanced services group participation affected teen mothers as adults and parents. The authors discuss the program's ineffectiveness in improving participants' short-term economic status and childbearing and parental…

This paper provides a brief overview of the origins of attachment theory and its current relevance to early childhood research and education. The empirical component of the work reported here concerns the use of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) with mothers in a multi-disciplinary, multi-functional early childhood setting, the Pen Green Centre…

The federal government's more than thirty-year attempt to solve the problems of poverty--in particular, the diminished life chances of children from low-income households--has been, according to these authors, largely unsuccessful. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 is, and has been, the most heavily funded…

Objective: This study examines the determinants of three types of child maltreatment: physical maltreatment, mental maltreatment, and child neglect among school children in the Kurdistan Province of Iran. The analysis examines the impact of socioeconomic, familial, demographic, and household dynamic factors on the three child maltreatment…

Objective: To evaluate a school-based early intervention program for the reduction of anxious symptoms in at-risk children from low socioeconomic status neighborhoods. Method: A total of 425 children (8-11 years old) from nine schools in low socioeconomic status areas were screened to identify children with high-level anxious symptoms. Ninety-one…

This paper describes "Break the Mold: Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century," a project involving Arkansas universities and public schools in a partnership to improve education by reforming teacher education and developing model schools. In 1994, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff School of Education (UAPB) and the Dollarway…

In response to continuing reductions in state tax support for the California Community Colleges (CCC), the CCC Board of Governors is considering a fee increase of from $10-per-unit to $30-per-unit, and has requested the Chancellor's Office (CO) to conduct a study of the impact of such a fee increase. Drawing on a number of information sources,…

Resources available to Arizona through the School-to-Work Opportunities Act will not be concentrated in rural communities, although their educational and economic development needs are proportionately greater. Absent from education reform bills pending in the Arizona House and Senate is any reference to school-to-work transition or any explicit…

This paper overviews challenges and solutions for educating migrant students in Michigan. The majority of migrant workers in the United States are Hispanic men with families. Data indicate that only about a fifth of migrant children complete education beyond the sixth grade. Migrant students tend to fall behind in their education because they…

During the 1993 session, the Nevada State Legislature enacted into law Nevada Revised Statute (NRS) 385.347, commonly known as the Nevada School Accountability Law. It requires all schools in Nevada to inform the public of the performance of public schools throughout the state. School accountability was accomplished through a system of reports…

This comprehensive review of the public system of occupational education and job training for women in the United States focuses on education and training for occupations that require less than a four-year college degree. Chapter 1, "Job Training for Women: The Problem in a Policy Context" (Harlan, Steinberg), sketches an outline of job training…