The essays in this collection explore black culture from the perspective of an author who went from a childhood in inner-city Detroit (Michigan) to become an ordained minister, university professor, and cultural critic. The book opens with a letter to the author's brother, in jail for murder, and examines their childhoods and the role of the…

Pennsylvania's House Resolution 43 of 1995 directs the Joint State Government Commission to report to the General Assembly on the feasibility of creating a voluntary residential school program for disadvantaged children. The Commission assembled a Working Group to consider this issue, and the group focused on poor children living in high crime…

In the 1980s Standard Grade curricula replaced Ordinary Grade curricula as the main academic course of study in the last 2 years of compulsory schooling (S3 and S4) in Scotland. This brief report examines the impact of the Standard Grade reform, focusing on changes in inequality of attainment for students from different social origins. It is based…

CityMatCH is a national organization of urban maternal and child health programs and leaders. In 1995, CityMatCH sponsored a conference at which urban maternal and child health leaders from city and county health departments across the country came together for professional development and networking. This report of highlights from the conference…

This publication for Pennsylvania educators outlines five homelessness curricula found in schools in Florida, Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania, which aim to sensitize students to the realities of homelessness. The report points out that although the curricula differ in many ways, each covers the following key topics: (1) the causes and…

American elementary school children need a common core curriculum so that they can share common points of references that will enable further learning; multiculturalism must be a part of this curriculum. But two types of multiculturalism exist: one that is universalistic in viewpoint, which might be called cosmopolitanism, and another that is…

Three factors in the 1990s will increase the importance of schools in the development of children. First, the character of schools will change as more students with special educational needs are integrated into mainstream classes. Second, efforts will be made to keep these students out of specialized teaching arrangements and in normal classrooms.…

This book is the result of a 2-year study of women who were disadvantaged as girls but who achieved highly in academics. The participants, all of whom had advanced degrees or had completed two years of graduate school, had been raised in low-income homes, were first-generation college students, and had faced stress as children. Most of these women…

Intended to encourage and facilitate research, policy development, and advocacy on issues relevant to those who are in poverty despite employment, this bibliography lists 145 articles and studies focusing on the working poor. Following a description of the search method and a guide to the bibliography, the references are divided into two sections.…

This newsletter issue presents articles on the development of youth resiliency through caring relationships with adults, high expectations, engaging activities, and opportunities to make decisions and contributions. Youth development programs and the experiences of teachers, parents, and adolescents are described, organized in five categories:…

Four promising programs for raising student achievement are described. All four attempt schoolwide improvement and primarily affect curriculum and pedagogy. Each program has its own strengths and weaknesses, but they all show evidence of: (1) high standards; (2) effectiveness; (3) replicability; and (4) support structures. Success for All, an…

In this critique of elementary and secondary education in the United States, the first section discusses the history of the U.S. educational system and how the development of the schools' curricula and assessment programs have been adapted to the white, male, Eurocentric style of learning. The second section looks at inequalities in learning and…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed the labor market links and vocational training performance of the Job Corps, which is an employment and training program aimed at providing severely disadvantaged youth with a comprehensive array of services in residential settings. Data were collected from the following: interviews with Job Corps…

This booklet, a public relations publication of Aetna Life & Casualty, describes Aetna's partnership program with schools, community groups, and other businesses to help disadvantaged youth develop employability skills. The issue of closing the employability gap is briefly addressed, and Aetna's interest and role in developing a pool of…

The Seattle (Washington) Public Schools receive Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) Chapter 1 funds annually for remedial instruction of low-achieving students in economically disadvantaged areas. To obtain these funds, the district must determine which of its schools are target areas; that is, which schools have students with…