A central argument for school choice is that families value the freedom to exercise choice and can make wise decisions. This principle may underlie why lottery-based school evaluations, which exploit over-subscription due to excess demand, have almost always reported positive or zero achievement effects. This paper reports on a striking empirical…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how early college high school (ECHS) principals promote the success of the first generation, students of color and low-income students they serve. Three ECHS principals were examined through two lenses: the traditional role of principals and a conceptual framework of democratic, socially just,…

The social, emotional, psychological and mental health needs of young people are highlighted in the social agendas of many Western countries. While a range of youth programs have been developed, there are pervasive difficulties achieving young peoples' sustained attention and positive participation in these programs (Santisteban et al. 1996;…

The Echo Park Film Center, a Los Angeles nonprofit media education organization, teaches underprivileged youth how to comprehend and make media in order to empower them to speak and be heard. Due to the organization's nonmainstream media courses and its connection to its community, the Center is able to create a participatory and socially…

Good schools are essential, but not sufficient for the long-term academic, economic, and civic success of our nation's young people. Rather, an integrated set of supports is needed in families, in all facets of communities, and in schools. Research, community wisdom, and common sense tell us that families, schools, and the broader community need…

This report presents a summary of the findings of Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 monitoring reviews, fulfilling the reporting requirement, Section 641A(f), of the Head Start Act. It highlights the enhancements made to the FY 2013 monitoring review system, summarizes grantee review outcomes, and describes the types of findings most commonly identified in FY…

Our paper examines the prevalence and determinants of children's transitions into and out of food insecurity since 2001. We use longitudinally linked data from the Food Security Supplements to the Current Population Surveys to estimate one-year transition probabilities of entry and exit from food insecurity. Our results indicate that child hunger…

Youth civic engagement has been an important topic for educators, policy makers, community leaders, and parents with many voicing concerns over a growing decrease in youth civic engagement. Youth civic engagement is often defined by engagement with politics and or the local community through volunteering or service-learning. Youth from…

This study examined the efficacy of using different types of mobile media apps to increase the receptive and expressive vocabulary development of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old preschool children living in economically disadvantaged communities. Children and teachers in four Head Start classrooms participated in the quasi-experimental study, which…

Head Start is a federally funded program providing comprehensive social and early education services to children from low-income households and their families. Seeking to boost outcomes of Head Start students, in 1998 Congress amended Head Start's statement of purpose, specifying school readiness as the program's top priority. This mission change…

A meta-analysis was conducted on the effects of technology-enhanced stories for young children's literacy development when compared to listening to stories in more traditional settings like storybook reading. A small but significant additional benefit of technology was found for story comprehension (g+ = 0.17) and expressive vocabulary (g+ =…

Background: Some children in areas of social deprivation in Scotland have lower reading attainment than neighbouring children in less deprived areas, and some of these also have lower spoken language comprehension skills than expected by assessment norms. There is a need to develop effective reading comprehension interventions that fit easily into…

We noted last month that Hispanic and African-American seniors were less likely to have taken a high school physics course than their peers, and we suggested that socioeconomic status (SES) played a role in the lower participation. Often the proportion of students receiving free and reduced-price meals (FRMs) is used as a measure of SES in…

Large-group circle time is an important component of many preschool classrooms' daily schedules. This study scrutinized the teaching content of Head Start teachers' literacy instruction (i.e., the types of literacy concept embedded within the instruction, lexical characteristics of teachers' talk, and elaborations on literacy knowledge) in two…

The Every Child Ready to Read program encourages parents to interact with their children using the five practices of early literacy: singing, talking, reading, writing, and playing. The program is reaching children in high-need communities who are likely to enter school less prepared their wealthier peers. Every Child Ready to Read has found that…