Since the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (welfare reform), impoverished children in single-parent families receive less aid than under the previous system, and the most disadvantaged of these children have slipped deeper into poverty. This research brief summarizes a study that explored the economic well-being…

In Bolivia, malnutrition afflicts about 25 percent of children under 3 and 12-24 percent of women. It contributes to high death rates, immune deficiency, learning disabilities, and low work productivity. Malnutrition and its effects are particularly severe among poor, rural, and indigenous populations. Malnutrition is both caused by and causes…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 reauthorized and significantly expanded the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Act and its accompanying fund increases offer numerous opportunities to improve teaching and achievement of young adolescents, targeting federal money more than ever to high poverty schools and districts and including…

This study examined how five high-poverty Texas high schools, which had attained notable achievement levels on selected academic indicators, reached their present levels of performance. The schools shared several characteristics: most students were economically disadvantaged; the location was in a large urban district; there was no selective…

This first in a four-part series on why academic achievement gaps persist discusses how to raise minority achievement. It explains how earlier progress in closing the gap has stalled, while at the same time, the greater diversity of student populations and the rapid growth of the Hispanic population and of other ethnic groups have reshaped the…

This publication presents an introduction,"New Frontiers for a New Century: A National Overview" (Kati Haycock), which announces a new, online, interactive database of national educational records and discusses the importance of making necessary changes in education. This requires that educators, policymakers, and advocates receive solid…

Schoolwide programs form the centerpiece of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act's vision of enabling programs to work together and support the overall reforms of states, school districts, and schools. A schoolwide program may now use Title I, Part A funds coupled with other federal education funds to upgrade the school's entire educational…

These proceedings from a conference on the health needs of Asian and Pacific American (APA) children include discussions and recommendations from each breakout session. The breakout sessions focused on trends and services; K-12 education; health and mental health; child abuse and neglect services; bias crime and violence; and poverty and welfare…

The systemic reform exemplified by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) requires the coupling of top-down state mandates with bottom-up advocacy and leadership. This research on an Eastern Kentucky school district details the dynamics at the district's main high school, as people struggle to build both a community of learners within…

This book provides basic data on educational attainment, achievement, and practices for each state and the United States as a whole, with a focus on the academic-achievement gap between minority and white students. The first part provides an overview of the national picture of education, describing academic achievement, expenditures and…

This paper seeks to make sense of the new diversity in the United States, with a focus on immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. Some key facts and figures about contemporary immigrants are presented, looking at their patterns of settlement and comparing their distinctive social and economic characteristics to major U.S. racial-ethnic…

This report presents information across states on a number of education indicators. It offers state profile information about students and their achievement, teachers, and standards for student learning. It also includes special data about the education of children in poverty and the assistance they receive toward achieving state standards through…

This study of six urban children ages 8-12 years challenges the prevailing misconception that poor city children are troubled, passive, and unintelligent. The research involved interviewing children about how and what they played and having them discuss drawings that they made about play. Guided by these children, who live in New York's East…

The 1996-97 school year marked the third year of a 4-year grant from the Texas Education Agency's Division of Adult and Community Education for funding the ASPIRE/Even Start program operated by Communities In Schools-Central Texas Inc. (CIS). The broad purpose of Even Start is to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy in families by…

The poverty affecting 14.5 million U.S. children living below the poverty line poses long-term effects, including risks to health, educational achievement, family stability, and employment prospects. This report provides compelling evidence of the substantial costs of poverty among children to our nation's economic well-being, and shows that…