This book presents a detailed study of the social support networks and help-seeking experiences of low-income Mexican-origin adolescents from immigrant families in the San Diego and San Francisco areas. Drawing on social network data, interviews, and statistical survey data, the book documents and elaborates on the numerous constraints and social…

This study tested a causal model of student college predisposition that incorporated traditional measures of influences (parents' education, income, gender, parents' expectations, grades, school activities), as well as two additional influences (first-generation status and mentoring) identified in qualitative studies of pre-college through early…

The Community Assessment (CA) is the collection and analysis of information on the characteristics and needs of American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) Head Start/Early Head Start (HS/EHS) eligible children and families in the grantee service area and the resources available to meet those needs. The primary purpose of conducting a Community…

The Skills Reinforcement Project was designed to increase basic mathematics and language arts skills of disadvantaged and minority youth. Forty-five minority and economically disadvantaged sixth graders who participated in a 110-hour program made statistically greater gains in mathematics than 45 comparison sixth graders and nonsignificant gains…

Research conducted in the 1980s on differences in race/ethnicity, gender, and social class in the kindergarten through grade 12 and in the educational uses of computers is summarized in terms of access, processes, and outcomes, focusing on equity. Conclusions include the implication that computer use has maintained and even exaggerated existing…

Author and advocate for public school reform Herbert Kohl discusses vouchers; charter schools; home schooling; national academic standards; high stakes testing; the role of the arts, storytelling, and fun in education; countering school failure; and the importance of developing teacher communities that cut across public, private, and home school…

Using maternal reports of child behavior, evaluated child, maternal, and environmental predictors of behavior problems in 83 African American and Puerto Rican preschoolers of disadvantaged adolescent mothers. Children of teenage mothers were less likely to have behavior problems by age three if the mothers received emotional support from peers and…

Susanna, a young girl from a low-income Chinese immigrant family, develops her oral language proficiency quickly in Head Start and kindergarten; however, she needs more support in her reading and writing. This case study examines an unusual journey of Susanna's learning to read and write in English. Observations in her home indicate a home with…

This paper considers the case of the Michigan Migrant Head Start program to describe and analyze the labor market conditions and teaching staff characteristics to identify the challenges faced by Migrant Head Start grantees in attracting, hiring, retaining, and training degreed teachers. The emphasis is on describing and analyzing the child care…

In almost every dimension, South Africa has undergone dramatic changes since the end of apartheid. Public education in South Africa has been completely transformed from an amalgam of separate and highly unequal educational systems, defined in terms of the race and place of residence of students, into a unified system based on the principle of…

The Even Start program was implemented to improve the educational opportunities of U.S. children and adults by integrating community early childhood education and adult education for parents into a unified family literacy initiative. This document is the final project report of the National Evaluation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program, a…

The Even Start program was authorized by Congress in 1988 to provide early childhood, adult, and parenting education to participating families in a family literacy initiative. This document provides an executive summary of the National Evaluation of Even Start, which assessed services, participants and effectiveness. The summary highlights topics…

This report outlines the Quillayute Valley Child and Family Consortium's End of Year Readiness to Learn program activities, including outcomes through May 1995. The program was established in part by the Washington State Readiness to Learn Initiative, designed to help children benefit from schooling by enabling schools and social services…

This book presents 20 papers on the current status and future needs of disadvantaged minority students in the elementary, secondary, and higher education systems. Papers are grouped into four sections: current challenges to minority education; restructuring schools to foster minority student success; reforming higher education; and leadership…

This Kids Count report examines statewide trends in the well-being of Idaho's children. The statistical portrait is based on 15 indicators of child and family well-being: (1) poverty; (2) single parent families; (3) infant mortality; (4) low birth weight babies; (5) percent of all mothers not receiving adequate prenatal care; (6) mothers ages…