For young people who have dropped out of school, are out of work, or lack connections to family or other caring adults, there are often no easy answers. Their hopes for a better life are frequently no different than those harbored by their more advantaged peers, but their path to adulthood is rendered more difficult by tangled combinations of…

The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (NCCTQ) was launched in 2005 as part of a comprehensive system of content-based technical assistance to support states in implementing the priorities of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. NCCTQ's mission is to support Regional Comprehensive Centers (RCCs), states, and other education…

This study examined the influence of perceived parental, peer, and cultural factors on Black American adolescent attitudes toward substance use. One-hundred-eight Black American youth (grades 9-12) from economically disadvantaged urban neighborhoods of New York, completed self-report measures on: (a) parent-child involvement, parental supervision,…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has ushered in an era of increased accountability and assumed universal proficiency at a time when there is significant variability in children's abilities as they enter kindergarten. Despite NCLB's emphasis on the use of evidence-based practices to improve students' achievement, it explicitly recommends grade…

The Chattanooga (Tennessee) public schools are building a national reputation for the work they are doing to improve the city's schools. The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, which has promised substantial grants for the reform of urban middle school education in Chattanooga, asked the Southern Education Foundation, through its Focused Reporting…

This book is designed to assist parents with a child who has a learning problem in school. It provides the questions a parent needs to ask himself or herself, the child, and the child's teachers about learning, and it suggests specific strategies that a parent can use to improve the child's learning. Research indicates that the interventions…

The Concordia University Inner City Youth (CICY) program links university students with youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in a way that is beneficial to both groups. Through the project, students in Concordia's Leisure Studies Program provide recreation activities for youth from Montreal's inner-city areas. Positive leisure experiences offer…

This report describes a project to improve achievement among 24 grade 11 basic U.S. history students in a growing, middle class, suburban community in northern Illinois. Students are assigned to basic classes due to reading test scores. Analysis of probable cause data revealed that students entered the course with poor attitudes toward school,…

This publication reports findings of an analysis of 1990 United States Bureau of Census data that determined where school teachers send their children to school. Findings indicate that the majority of all parents in the United States sent their children to public schools. As a group, teachers were more likely than the public at large to enroll…

The Alternative Learning Methodologies through Academics Project (Project ALMA) was an Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII-funded project in its fourth year of operation in two high schools in Queens and the Bronx (New York). The program served 436 Spanish-speaking students, most of whom were of limited English proficiency.…

Parents of babies have many tasks to master. Beyond basic physical skills needed to care for children, such as diapering or preparing formula, parents need emotional wisdom to relate to their child. Parents with limited resources should know that as long as they provide the emotional nourishment that babies need, their baby will flourish. The…

Nine papers delivered at the Division of Libraries Serving the General Public at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 1992 annual meeting are presented. In addition to papers about libraries for disadvantaged persons, papers on services to children and young people and to the general public through mobile…

This summative evaluation of the Public Library Services to Disadvantaged Populations Grant program describes how the grant program is meeting its stated objectives, how it is contributing to library development in Texas, and how Texas State Library activities and policy impact the program. The Texas State Library initiated this grant program with…

The Capacity Building Special Alternatives Program, an Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII-funded project in its second year of operation, functioned at seven schools in a community school district of Manhattan (New York). The project served 195 students of limited English proficiency (LEP) whose native languages were Albanian,…

South Carolina's Occupational Education delivery system made progress in achieving the 3-year goals contained in the Two-Year State Plan for Vocational-Technical Education, FY 1995-96, especially through its continued implementation of tech prep. Workshops provided technical assistance related to standards and measures. The system consisted of 242…