Research has shown that the quality of preschool teacher-child relationships can forecast children's social-emotional development, academic achievement, and school attitude; these benefits are amplified for impoverished children. However, teachers tend to have conflictual relationships with children living in poverty. Additionally, research in…

The goal of state special education funding should be to equitably distribute funds that are adequate for all schools to meet their legal obligation to provide a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities. Unfortunately, inadequate state special education funding is growing more common in Philadelphia schools. In this…

Children in impoverished settings face a multitude of risk factors that may impact early childhood development (ECD). Poor ECD can lead to negative outcomes and the continuation of the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Early stimulation from caregivers can counter the effects of risk factors. Increased developmental literacy supports positive…

Our study extends the understanding of how three distinct environments including home, childcare, and neighbourhood may influence young children's problematic behaviours among a sample of predominantly unmarried mothers residing in urban communities in the United States. With a sample of 791 mothers we examined whether neighbourhood disadvantage…

Background: Quality early childhood development (ECD) is crucial for protecting children against a multitude of socio-economic challenges such as poor living standards, lack of education, and substandard healthcare. Furthermore, research has revealed that educational resources used at ECD centres enrich the all-round well-being of young children.…

It has been shown that Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is beneficial in schools with a wide range of populations because of its emphasis on academic achievement for all students, cultural competency, and social justice issues. This study focused on teachers' perceptions about how to use a Culturally Relevant Pedagogy model in the classroom.…

We develop a new framework for identifying at-risk students in public schools. Our framework has two fundamental advantages over "status quo" systems: (1) it is based on a clear definition of what it means for a student to be at risk and (2) it leverages states' rich administrative data systems to produce more informative risk measures.…

Media accounts have described kindergarten through 12th grade teaching staff shortages in 2021-2022 that were severe enough to temporarily close schools for in-person instruction in some areas. Although much has been written about the negative impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on teachers, less is known about the extent…

Teacher attrition is endemic in education, creating teacher quantity and quality gaps across schools that are often stratified by region and racialized nuance (Cowan et al., 2016; Scafidi et al., 2017). This reality is starkly reflected in South Carolina. Not too long ago, on May 1, 2019, a sea of approximately 10,000 people, dressed in red,…

Schools have made efforts to improve outcomes for poor, Black, and Latino students, but disparities persist. Education policies in the United States are not addressing the structural inequities in schools and any external influences that contribute to the low achievement of Black, and Latino students living in poverty. The research in this study…

Embracing the best ideals of Victory Gardens, this essay celebrates Friendship Gardens. The latter go further: collapsing the dualisms separating victors from losers. Friendships that transcend differences and honor diversity are among the many fruits and organic gifts harvested and shared in the commons created by Friendship Gardens. This essay…

The epistle of James was for years a forgotten book in academic circles. In recent decades, however, a renewed focus on early Judaism has generated interest in looking at James with new eyes. Poverty and wealth in the epistle continues to be a point of interest. Other topics, however, are still to be explored. One of these topics is the rhetorical…

The Cooperative Extension National Framework for Health and Wellness calls on Extension professionals to operate in new ways that will shape "the context in which people grow, learn, work, and play" and to practice multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches in communities. In this article, we present three cases in Oregon as examples…

In light of community changes and curricular deficits, it is essential for social work educators to find ways to teach social empathy and poverty content to students who may or may not have had much direct contact with economically diverse households in their formative years. Our framework and research pick up where well-intended policy efforts…

Mother and child wellbeing are intimately connected during pregnancy and the first 12 months of the infant's life. The fetus and child directly experience the mother's life and are shaped by it. A mother's environmental experiences, physical health, and psychological distress affect her interactions with her infant, which in turn have…