As part of a national Middle Start initiative led by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), Mid South Middle Start is committed to working with high-poverty schools in the Mid South Delta region to build their capacity to foster students' academic excellence, support the development of young adolescents, and achieve social equity in…

Today, society has a greater understanding of what constitutes children at risk. Unlike years past, educators within society can no longer take the luxury of ignoring students facing emotional and social challenges. Instead, they must respond quickly and positively to the needs of students faced with many of these challenges by developing…

This report examines differences between full-day and half-day kindergarten across the United States using ECLS-K data from schools, teachers, parents and kindergarten children. Described, are the schools, both public and private, that offer these programs and the children who attend them. The report further describes many characteristics of…

This Kids Count report details statewide trends in the well-being of Vermont's children. The statistical portrait is based on 30 indicators of well-being: (1) population; (2) racial and ethnic diversity; (3) median family income; (4) working mothers; (5) single-parent families; (6) child poverty; (7) children receiving ANFC; (8) children receiving…

During the 1920s, progressive women activists invented welfare to help mothers and their children survive when breadwinning fathers either died or abandoned their families. During the 1930s, the local mothers' pension programs of the Progressive Era became part of the emerging national welfare state, which was conceived to relieve poor single…

This report, prepared by Washington Kids Count, is the culmination of the Puget Sound Success By 6 project, and marks the transition of this effort to the University of Washington, Institute for Public Policy and Management. The report is divided into several short sections providing statistical data on child and family well-being and a…

The Social Network Study was conducted in 1996 as part of a larger research project that looked at the experience of men and women with different racial, ethnic, educational backgrounds, and career paths in the Philadelphia labor market. Data were gathered through a survey focused on the relationship between work experience, training, and the…

This book analyzes the responses of five states (Florida, Mississippi, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin) to challenges posed by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to alter state welfare programs and management systems. Using case studies, the book highlights similarities and differences in the states'…

This annual report features national data on academic progress in U.S. public schools, showing student achievement and opportunity patterns from kindergarten through college, by race, ethnicity and family income. It focuses on academic achievement (reading performance on the most recent adminstration of the National Asssessment of Educational…

A study examined how further education (FE) colleges and Local Education Authority adult education services contribute to neighborhood renewal (NR) in deprived areas and how their strategic role might develop. The National Strategy for Neighborhood Renewal was tackling deprivation in 88 of England's poorest communities by promoting the development…

The impact of California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKS), which was passed to increase California welfare recipients' participation in welfare-to-work (WTW) activities, was examined. The impact study consisted of a nonexperimental program evaluation that used statistical models to estimate causal effects and a simulation…

This paper presents proceedings from a 2001 working conference of the State and District Support to Low-Performing Schools initiative, which presented research-based strategies and exemplary practice to improve low-performing schools. The presentations focused on state and district systems of support to low-performing schools; use of data to…

In the context of the reauthorization of the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant, research data about the benefits of resulting programs were synthesized and recommendations were made for changes to current law based on the research. Some of the research findings were that those who leave welfare are not earning…

The Wheeling Housing Authority in Wheeling, West Virginia, conducted two residential programs to help women living in public housing develop economic self-sufficiency. The Learning Independence from Employment (LIFE) program was an intensive 3-week program designed to accomplish the following objectives: improve participants' communication skills…

Many of Wisconsin's working families face economic distress, living from paycheck to paycheck and being forced to choose between paying their rent or buying food for their children. Parents under stress often cannot support their children with time, energy or resources. In order to affirm the importance of children in the state, and to help build…