These "Stories From the Field" describe five Wallace-funded programs working to expand learning and enrichment for disadvantaged children, so they can benefit from the types of opportunities their wealthier counterparts have access to, from homework help to swimming classes. The report details each program's approach, successes and…

The Idaho State Department of Education, Child Nutrition program was awarded a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Direct Certification (DC) grant in October 2008. Under direct certification, school districts use information from the State Health and Welfare database to certify children to receive free meals. The purpose of this grant…

As it was conceived, the School of the Future was to be a study in contrast to the typical big-city high school. When the $62 million facility opened in 2006 with a relatively small student population, a computer-based curriculum delivered with the latest technology tools, and a unique partnership with corporate giant Microsoft, it set out to…

Early Head Start/Head Start teachers and staff encounter parents who have wrestled with depression and other adversities every day. This article describes an innovative program of trainings for and consultation to Early Head Start/Head Start staff to help them effectively deal with mental heath challenges faced by parents and children. The program…

Early Years provision in England has historically been fragmented and under-funded. In seeking to address this situation, New Labour has developed a range of Early Years initiatives with the principal aim of tackling poverty and disadvantage. This article traces the recent history of Early Years provision and critically explores the extent to…

Currently, few measures are available to monitor young children's progress in acquiring key early academic skills. In response to this need, the authors have begun developing measures (i.e., the Early Arithmetic, Reading and Learning Indicators, or EARLI) of preschoolers' numeracy skills. To accurately and efficiently monitor acquisition of early…

A growing number of studies demonstrate associations among false-belief understanding (FBU), executive function (EF), and social competence. This study extends previous studies by exploring longitudinal associations among FBU and its correlates within a low-income sample of preschoolers attending Head Start. Sixty-eight children (time 1 mean age =…

A withdrawal design repeated across three children enrolled in two Head Start classrooms was used to investigate the effectiveness of functional assessment-based interventions to decrease inappropriate behavior. The two questions addressed in the study were (a) Will a behavior intervention plan based on functional behavior assessment conducted in…

This final report updates the report "Upward Bound Math-Science: Program Description and Interim Impact Estimates" published in 2007 (Olsen et al. 2007). The 2007 interim report contained descriptive findings from a survey of Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS) grantees from the late 1990s at the time of the study's initiation and impact estimates…

Head Start was designed as a holistic intervention to improve economically disadvantaged, preschool-aged children's cognitive and social development by providing a comprehensive set of educational, health, nutritional, and social services, as well as opportunities for parent involvement (Zigler & Valentine, 1979). Given the current interest in ECE…

A degree beyond high school has become an essential element of opportunity in America and is a proven pathway out of poverty. However, the majority of our nation's young people, especially low-income Americans, are finding it difficult to complete this pathway to success. Every day, there are faith communities throughout the country that are…

Title I funds are available to districts and schools with high numbers or percentages of disadvantaged students to provide services, including academic enrichment services through Title I, Part A, so all the nation's children have an equal opportunity to education and can reach proficiency on state academic achievement standards and assessments.…

The federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act ("McKinney-Vento") provides federal funding to states to address the problems that homeless children and youth encounter in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in the nation's public schools. McKinney-Vento requires states to develop plans that ensure homeless children and youth the…

How government spends money, and who benefits, reveals our priorities. How, then, do children fare in the competition for public resources? This report looks at public investments across age groups, from birth through the elementary years. Key findings show that spending more than doubles per capita between the infant and toddler years and the…

As Secretary of Education from 1993 to 2001, Richard Riley had serious concerns about out-of-field teaching. The practice--which places in core academic classes instructors who have neither certification nor a major in the subject field taught--just didn't make sense to him. Both when he considered what children were getting in the classroom or…