This paper considers how Australian young people living in relative poverty, per se, are portrayed in media reports and how a specific group of socioeconomically disadvantaged young people are constituted in teachers' classroom talk. The paper begins with the examination of several newspaper reports, part of an archive of articles concerned with…

It is not news that managerial discourses have dominated government educational policy and programs in Australia since the mid 1980s. During this period there has also been a proliferation of discourses about literacy. The common sense view is that literacy empowers disadvantaged people and assists failing economies. The last decade and a half has…

This "Developing Service Plans" guide is a tool to assist grantees in the development of written service plans. It provides a structure that can be tailored to meet the needs of individual grantees. Services Plans are a management tool for planning, organizing and implementing Head Start program services to children and families. As stated in the…

In May 2002, Governor Rick Perry announced plans for several higher education initiatives, including the recruitment, preparation, enrollment, and retention of first generation college students. First generation college students are students who would be the first in their families to complete higher education through two- and four-year…

This issue includes the following Articles: (1) "Spellings Says Nation's Academic Progress Due to "New Equation." On Jan. 31, 2005, Margaret Spellings was sworn in as the eighth secretary of education. Across the nation, test scores in Reading and Math are rising, with disadvantaged and minority students leading the way. After long decades, the…

Cognitive skills, engagement in school, social skills, and physical well being are all important for children's early success in school. However, some groups of children begin kindergarten less ready for school than others and, by the end of first grade, still haven't "caught up" with their more successful peers. This CrossCurrents brief reports…

Argues that the implicit tendency to infer that the sophistication of one's verbal behavior mirrors one's cognitive sophistication must be scrutinized, and demonstrates that the assessment of the verbal behavior of nonstandard speakers must be accomplished via a medium that is not "foreign" to those in question. (Author/JM)

This paper deals with child care arrangements of working mothers highlighting the current controversies over the types of care which families use, the fees paid, and the costs of different modes of child care. The special problems of implementing national day care programs are reviewed, including the case for subsidized care, the costs of meeting…

Disadvantaged, language handicapped, or visually impaired children can make puppets in class and use them to improve language development or raise self concept. (MC)

In this dialogue,' B. Willsher discusses the relation between language and deprivation, linking some of its theoretical aspects with her own experiences in school, and during her involvement with an Educational Priority Area; J. Hynds criticizes three of her assumptions, based upon recent writings and research. (JM)

The Center for Vocational and Technical Education reviewed 26 career education programs in operation in various sections of the U.S., finding seven components common to most of them: cooperative education, career guidance, placement, follow-up, programs for disadvantaged and/or handicapped youth, and in-service teacher education. (JM)

Compared were the effect of both a preschool program developed to foster autonomous behaviors and a cognitively oriented structured program on the autonomy measures of 77 5-year-old Mexican-American or Negro children. (DB)

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between creative behavior and visual-motor perceptual development of disadvantaged children. (Author)