Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) is unsatisfactory: it is biased against the poor, and allows the government to control the poor. Evaluates Massachusetts' Employment and Training (ET) program, and New Jersey's Realizing Economic Achievement (REACH) program. Offers recommendations for REACH and for an improved Federal welfare program.…

Analyzes the economic performance of all United States counties for 1970, 1980, and the mid 1980s and compares Appalachian counties with all counties in the nation using population, income, unemployment, and urbanization to measure different aspects of economic change. Includes data tables and maps. (JHZ)

Examines general demographic, social, and economic situation of older rural people and how their conditons do or do not differ from those of older urbanites. Contrasts migration trends, living arrangements, income, housing, transportation, communication, and health. Figures and tables provide population, residency, living arrangement, and poverty…

Wisconsin's guaranteed tax base equalization formula has no direct adjustment for the additional costs of educating poverty level pupils. This paper establishes the need for an adjustment and examines three measures (based on varying poverty definitions) to determine which provides the most equitable funding formula for educating poor children. (9…

Explains some socioeconomic problems of farmworkers. Explains a Training and Technology project to train economically disadvantaged Southern farmworkers for industrial jobs. Examines the project's long-term effects on employment, wage rates, and quality of life of 118 participants. Discusses implications for rural social workers serving…

This essay, intended for use with secondary grade students, describes the current world situation regarding food and population and discusses likely prospects for feeding a hungry and growing population. Student resources for further reading and research are provided. A separate teaching guide is included. (RM)

This book presents research findings about school-level and district level practices and successful strategies employed in mathematics education by highly effective schools that serve high-poverty communities. It includes both the theory and practice of creating highly effective schools in these communities. In 2002 nine schools were selected in…

While the research is clear that family involvement fosters student achievement, it does not clearly describe what family involvement looks like in practice. The authors of this booklet interviewed parents and other family members, teachers, and administrators at four elementary schools and two secondary schools in Oregon and Montana that are…

Even Start programs integrate early childhood education, adult literacy or basic education, parenting education and support, and parent and child time together to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy. This progress report describes the Even Start program in Colorado and presents evaluation findings from the 2001-2002 implementation year,…

Located along the U.S. Mexico border, colonias are unincorporated areas with no building codes, city taxes, or infrastructure. Most colonia residents live in poverty. Involving rural colonia residents from Hildago County, Texas, in a concerted effort to solve their problems became a central focus for a task force of educational and social…

The United States does not have a coherent national rural policy. The federal government has focused on a sector-based policy that has only indirect impact on rural America. State governments have failed to move beyond their traditional focus areas of education, corrections, Medicaid, and other state services. The diversity of rural America makes…

This report examines the changing nature of segregation and integration in a society that has now become far more profoundly multiracial than it was in the past and explores some of the connections between segregation by race, segregation by poverty, and unequal opportunity. It has several basic goals--to help people understand some of the…

This study investigated whether Mississippi's Parents as Teachers (PAT) program was advancing parent involvement in children's learning at home and when children entered formal schooling. It focused on whether there were differences in frequency of school participation and in levels of engagement in home learning activities between parents who had…

Commissioned by the Foundation for Child Development, this report examines the state of universal prekindergarten in the United States and the challenges to its widespread implementation. The report describes socioeconomic and ethnic/racial differences in school readiness and maintains that policymakers need to identify mechanisms in addition to…

This study analyzed segregation among public elementary school children using data collected by the National Center for Educational Statistics through the 1999-00 school year. It examined the impact of such factors as families opting out of the public school system or taking school attendance lines into account when deciding where to live, noting…