Children will face many critical issues in the 21st century. Unfortunately, most of these issues are not new and have remained the same from previous years. Millions of children lack safe, affordable, quality child care and early childhood education while their parents work. Seven and one-half million children are at home alone without…

This paper discusses one aspect of the findings from an ethnographic study of the ways in which four-year-old children learn, and are taught, at home and in their Reception class. The children were from two distinctive cultural backgrounds within the same urban neighbourhood: one-half belonged to UK ("Anglo") families, and one-half to…

Today, a college education is increasingly viewed as the gateway to the American Dream--a necessary prerequisite for social mobility. Yet recent policy reforms in the United States effectively steer former welfare recipients away from an education that could further their career prospects, forcing them directly into the workforce where they often…

Tens of thousands of California's 4-year-olds are not enrolled in preschool, ranking California 37th in the nation in preschool enrollment. Pioneering communities throughout the state are working to meet the demand for preschool in their neighborhoods. The achievements of these innovative local efforts indicate the future success of a statewide…

Long before the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina or the chaos of evacuation, New Orleans' social infrastructure was failing. News coverage of the overcrowded Superdome and the city's flooded streets exposed the poverty and vulnerability of many residents, especially African Americans. As New Orleans begins to rebuild, can the city avoid the mistakes…

The integrated Aimhigher programme was established in 2004 to widen participation in higher education by raising the aspirations and developing the abilities of young people from underrepresented groups. In order to explore the extent to which young people subsequently made a successful transition at 16 and intended, or had decided, to continue…

Created in 1972, the Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) Program, one of eight TRIO Programs, funds EOC projects at two- and four-year colleges and universities and public or private agencies or organizations to assist adults from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter or continue a postsecondary education program. Participants in EOC projects…

Highly qualified teachers and administrators are in high demand. Too often the challenge is not simply preparing more teachers and administrators, but preparing the teachers and administrators we have. The overall quality of teachers and administrators is misunderstood and misdirected. Do states have a sufficient surplus of teachers and…

Nearly twenty million children in the United States do not have computers in their homes. The role of "home" computers in the educational process, however, has drawn very little attention in the previous literature. We use panel data from the two main U.S. datasets that include recent information on computer ownership among children--the…

This paper examines the extent to which family wealth affects the race-child achievement association for young children based on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We found little evidence that wealth mediates the black-white test scores gap. However, liquid assets, particularly holding in stocks and mutual funds, are positively…

The "achievement gap" is one of the most talked-about issues in U.S. education. The term refers to the disparities in standardized test scores between Black and White, Latina/o and White, and recent immigrant and White students. This article argues that a focus on the gap is misplaced. Instead, we need to look at the "education…

Urban minority children have higher rates of asthma morbidity due to multiple factors. Many school-based programs have been funded to improve asthma management, especially for these "high-risk" inner-city children with asthma. Here they report the outcomes of the Children's Hospital of Orange County Breathmobile program, which is a school-based…

State exit exams, also known as graduation tests, are tests that student must pass to graduate from high school. These tests are more influential than ever. Accordingly, in 2004, 20 states required students to pass an exit exam to graduate from high school, and six additional states will implement an exit exam by 2009. This affects more than half…

The purpose of the study reported upon in this paper was to determine what graduates of a teacher education program designed to prepare teachers who will work toward goals of equity and social justice were encountering in their schools and how they felt they were doing with regard to these aims and why. Eleven graduates in their second, fourth or…

Among the communities of critical race theorists and its detractors in education, there is an apparent rift as to what theoretical construct best contributes to the social justice project in education. Conferences and meetings have served as quasi-battle grounds for theorists, activists and scholars to go back and forth about what theoretical…