Describes benefits of an after-school mentorship program involving students in a teacher-education course at Minnesota State University and low-income youths between 9 and 13 years of age in the surrounding community of Moorhead, Minnesota. (Contains 17 references.) (PKP)

Asserts that education is the best long-term answer to hunger and disease. Poor families, which have 2.2 times higher the high school dropout rate than do nonpoor families, are much more susceptible to disease, accidents, death, and hunger. The U.S. and Canada have the highest level of poor children among industrialized countries. (DG)

By examining the premises underlying conventional approaches to teaching disadvantaged students, educators can devise more challenging content and more effective instructional methods. Some important principles include maximizing time on task, establishing high expectations and a school climate supporting academic learning, and strengthening…

Standardized intelligence and achievement tests fail to identify gifted rural children because of a bias toward urban acculturation. In rural Indiana, Project SPRING identified 105 fourth and fifth grade disadvantaged gifted children and provided nontraditional learning experiences and enrichment activities to develop their talents. (SK)

Provides a historical account of affirmative action programs from their inception to the passing of the 1996 California Proposition 209 law. Court opinions, statistics, and reports of societal perceptions are used to show cause-and-effect relationships for the successes of these programs in the 1970s and challenges to their existence in the 1990s.…

Maple Leaf Outdoor Centre (Ontario) has added year-round outdoor education facilities and programs to help support its summer camp for disadvantaged children. Schools, youth centers, religious groups, and athletic teams conduct their own programs, collaborate with staff, or use staff-developed programs emphasizing adventure education and personal…

Questions the assumptions upon which grade weighting is founded and explores how different groups will likely be affected by this approach. Concludes that weighted grades work against social justice, largely by penalizing those students who are least likely to take college preparatory courses--that is, poor and minority students. (Contains 16…

Reviews a book which asserts that "there is no higher moral challenge than to hold on to the promise and goodness of a child when others...do not recognize that promise." The book discusses questions about children's futures, stressing the importance of doing something to help disadvantaged children living on the edge. This article examines six…

In the United States, there is an alarming trend toward obesity and inactivity among children. Minorities and economically disadvantaged children are at an even higher risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention one in two Latino children will become diabetic. As a result, there is a dire need for tailored intervention…

In 1994, the federal Early Head Start program was created to address the comprehensive needs of low-income children under age 3 and pregnant women. Since 1965, the Head Start program has served low-income 3- and 4-year-old children and their families with comprehensive early education and support services. Programs provide services focused on the…

Why is it that some schools are more successful that others in improving achievement in literacy and numeracy for those pupils who have barriers to their learning? What is it that makes the difference for the lowest achieving 20% of pupils? Her Majesty's Inspectors visited a number of schools that were making a significant difference for…

Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, schools have been looking for resources that are proven, through research, to improve student achievement. The purpose of this article is to determine if there is a relationship between class size and student achievement among 137 school systems in Tennessee. The authors provide a review of the literature…

The purpose of this study was to explore Vygotsky's notion of private speech as a cognitive self-regulatory process and how it related to creativity measures among at-risk children. Thirty-two Head Start and state-funded Pre-K children completed the Torrance creativity test Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM). The children's private…

In this study we examined the relationships between family demographics and level of satisfaction with school contact as possible determinants of multiple dimensions of family involvement in early childhood education. Participants included 171 urban, Head Start parents (108 mothers and 63 fathers). Results revealed that for mothers, having less…

In this article, we explore how two informal educational contexts--an aquarium and an after-school science program--enabled disenfranchised learners to adopt an identity as insiders to the world of science. We tell the stories of four youth, relating what doing science meant to them and how they positioned themselves in relation to science. We…