Examines three decades of school finance legislation, highlighting emerging judicial constructs of equity and adequacy. Generally, court decisions have turned on adequacy, rather than equity considerations. There is a broad movement under way to secure, in law and practice, poor children's rights to equal opportunity and nondiscrimination. This…

Reports findings from a study investigating the information seeking and information needs of low income African American households in Dallas, Texas. Three hundred households were surveyed; results show information seeking behavior, particularly with regard to employment, health, news, and security issues. (Author/AEF)

This article describes Project Mandela, a federally funded enrichment and family support program for special populations (such as culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged) of gifted learners. Eighty-seven families participated in development of Individual Family Support Plans to enhance children's educational progress. The project found…

Six preschool children, mostly from poverty-level backgrounds, were taught to make descriptive statements about objects. The category-descriptor statements were organized and sequenced into four clusters. As sets of new statements were successively taught and evaluated, the number and diversity of probed category and descriptor terms steadily and…

Pakistan province initiated two pilot programs to encourage the creation of private schools for poor girls. Uses randomized assignment to treatment and control groups to measure program effectiveness. Finds that the pilot schools are successful in urban areas, but relative failures in rural. Explains differences such as better availability of…

Examines the impact of a services economy on the work and income of Black women in relation to current labor theory, employment patterns of Black and White women, and future policy implications. Discusses the growing feminization of poverty as the product of a growing subculture of low-wage work. (JS)

Discusses areas of disagreement between the Institute of Medicine's report, "Homelessness, Health and Human Needs," and the controversial supplementary statement, "Health Care for the Homeless," issued separately by 10 of the authors. (FMW)

Based on a two-year study of four elementary schools in a poor, crime-ridden section of Chicago, this article finds the public school an island of relative safety in an ocean of danger. Community-wide approaches are needed to stop lawlessness and fear in innercity schools. Includes seven references. (MLH)

Assesses the progress of equality since Brown v Topeka Board of Education and argues that there still has not been a full implementation of that Supreme Court decree. School integration is shown to be declining. It is recommended that The court could merge the equality standards of Plessy v Ferguson with Brown to provide quality education. (GR)

Based on the inaugural Suzanne McConnell Memorial Lecture, this article focuses on the theme of action in complex contexts. The following topics are covered: the author's approach to this theme and the steps needed to progress from analysis of context to new debates and practical action; the changing context of ALBE; and opportunities for action.…

Presents critical responses to Ron K. Unz's 1994 article, "Immigration or the Welfare System" which challenged the notion that out-of-control immigration is fueling a host of social and economic problems, from crime to welfare dependency to job loss, and suggested that welfare policies are the real cause of social breakdown. Unz's response is…

Argues that the GI Bill has largely gone unfulfilled for blacks. This is because the poverty in which most blacks found themselves after World War II made seeking higher education problematic. College overcrowding, inadequate precollege preparation, and segregationist policies at schools did not help. The result was greater pressure on black…

Explores the findings from a two-year participant observation study of educational reform in an inner-city setting. The author deconstructs a major sociological/educational assumption instantiated in the reforms and attempts to delineate an alternative theoretical framework for understanding educational reform failure in inner-city situations. (GR)

Provides comments on the long-term growth and adaptation of immigrant youth born after 1965 and living in the United States. The author explores the impact of immigration laws, discrimination, and economic opportunities in American society on today's children of immigrants and how these conditions can drive them into the lower socioeconomic…

Examines the assimilation hypothesis for young adult first- and second-generation immigrants in Australia. It studies the relative economic performance of immigrants as reflected by their unemployment duration and the number of spells of unemployment over a four-year period as indicators of personal performance and labor market conditions. Results…