The California Workforce Literacy Task Force conducted studies and surveyed existing literature to determine the status of literacy and other basic skills in the state's work force. The results are reported with a series of recommendations for a broad-based state strategy to improve worker productivity through better educational opportunities. Ten…

This collection of 15 papers reconceptualizes the problem of failure in schools and describe the interlocking structural arrangements, curricular and instructional practices, and other school conditions that constitute barriers blocking all students' access to knowledge. A new agenda is offered for the national reform movement, an agenda that…

The following two types of student mobility stand out as causing educational problems: (1) inner-city mobility, which is prompted largely by fluctuations in the job market; and (2) intra-city mobility, which is caused by upward mobility or by poverty and homelessness. Most research indicates that high mobility negatively affects student…

Prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, this report projects the level of care very young children and very elderly adults will require in the coming decades and analyzes some ways the nation might respond to these needs. Section 1 documents significant increases in the demand for care that will occur by 1990. Attention is given to factors…

According to estimates prepared by the Bureau of the Census and the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, the 1982 farm population of 5,620,000, or 2.4% of the national population, continued a long downward trend. About 45% of farm residents lived in the North Central region, 35% in the South, 13% in the West,…

A healthy economy is the best offense against poverty, but economic growth alone cannot close the wide gap between the poverty rates of minorities and whites. This collection examines the socioeconomic status of racial and ethnic minorities, their experiences with poverty, and the effects of federal social policies toward minority groups from 1787…

This document identifies and describes the sources of public support for postsecondary vocational training in the United States, including the mix of public assistance that is currently available to economically disadvantaged individuals. Following an introduction, the second section is an overview of the general financing situation. Tables report…

This paper contributes to the recovery of finance reform by providing a rough gauge that will allow individual states to evaluate their positions among their peers regarding several basic equity principles and measures. Changes in these equity measures over an 8-year period are assessed, and some of the correlates of equity at the state level are…

Among these education-related papers in this collection are "Consumer Issues and the Elderly" (Moon); "The Relationship between Perceived Life Satisfaction and Measures of Economic Well-Being" (Douthitt, MacDonald, Mullis); "Research Data Priorities as Assessed by Users" (Chern, Hushak, Tweeten); "New Directions in Data, Information Systems and…

From a sample of 6,000 pupils in a Tennessee school district, this study relates the variables of gender, social class, and number of parents in student households to achievement on a norm-referenced test. Charts presenting data findings comprise three-fourths of the document. Investigation was motivated by studies that connect student learning…

This journal issue contains 18 solicited articles on two major topics: adult education and the elderly, and the literacy debate. The articles on adult education and the elderly include "A Ripe Old Age," republished from a newsletter of the British aid organization OXFAM; "Special Programme for Retirees: A Model Project in Cali, Colombia," by…

Because magnet schools restructure school and district attendance area boundaries in order to achieve racial heterogeneity, they attempt to disassemble the very unit towards which the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act Chapter 1 program targets its resources--neighborhood schools attended by poor children. A nine-district survey of the…

After progress towards achieving major income security goals during the 1960s and 1970s, economic slowdown and public reaction against "the welfare state" have curtailed direct intervention by the federal government for these purposes. Absolute poverty and welfare dependency have increased in the 1980s, especially among the young. Major…

This is a transcript which documents 1980 hearings of the House of Representatives Committee on the District of Columbia. The transcript compares past and present conditions in Washington, D.C. and other American cities; surveys how Federal assistance has helped or hindered the ability of cities to confront urban problems; and explores how Federal…

Although the role of women in the American economy has come a long way in the years since 1950, women have made relatively little progress in quite a number of areas. In the years during and after World War II, women's employment has increased significantly, with married women being the ones who have entered the work force most rapidly. Despite…