Examined the quality of care provided to children from low-income families, using data from a nationally representative survey of child care centers and a five-site observational study of centers. Found that the quality of care in centers serving predominantly low-income families was better than centers serving middle-income families. (MDM)

Investigates the relationships between participating in traditional extracurricular activities and the academic achievement levels of minority male and female students in poor urban schools. Figures from a national database (24,355 eighth graders) show that in almost 50% of cases, male participation in extracurriculars was associated with lower…

The current obsession with standardizing curricula and measuring output may further reduce teacher agency and marginalize segments of our society that are already cheated by the system. Enormous discrepancies exist among public-school facilities, resources, and teachers. Multicultural education will suffer unless legislatures address these…

The Ohio Appalachian Center for Higher Education (OACHE) is a consortium of 10 public colleges and universities that funds proposals from regional schools for creative initiatives that encourage students toward postsecondary education. College attendance rates from Appalachian Ohio have increased, and the OACHE model is being applied to programs…

Discusses U.S. economic trends for the past century. Notes that distribution of wealth is more concentrated at top than is distribution of income, with income inequality growing worse in the 1990s. Maintains that wealth disparity explains achievement test score gaps between white and minority students. Presents proposals for asset-building,…

The School of Hope (Pointe Coupee Parish Schools, Louisiana) opened in January 1996 in response to industry's needs for nonprofessional employees. Curriculum is provided by an integrated learning system--35 computers linked to mainframe--that allows students to work on individualized lessons at their own pace. Seventy percent of 120 students are…

Discusses the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI), a Ford Foundation-funded project involving 24 community and tribal colleges. Describes RCCI's progress towards its goal of transforming rural economies and the prospects of their people. Concludes that through participation in RCCI, colleges can help revitalize communities. (NB)

Examined the interaction of social class and racial identity in urban school reform. Presents a case study of reform at one urban California high school which used an Afrocentric curriculum to help improve academic performance, arguing that the effort was ineffective because it failed to consider ways in which poverty influenced the identities of…

Millionaire Stuart Sloan pumps $1 million a year into the budget of T.T. Minor Elementary School, located in a predominantly Black, poor neighborhood in Seattle (Washington). Sloan's generosity helps provide an extended school year, before- and after-school programs, small class sizes, extra meals, uniforms, ongoing staff training, and an outreach…

The Rural Community College Initiative challenges colleges in economically distressed regions to become catalysts for economic and community development and improved access to education. Led by college-community teams, the 24 sites have experimented with strategic approaches that include leadership development, entrepreneurship education, small…

Discusses what three researchers discovered about schools, home environments, and inequitable education, examining the achievement gap between middle-class and poor, minority students and noting that summer school does little to close the gap. Suggests a strategy to boost the summer achievement of poor children that would give them the extra…

The current longitudinal study examined the protective effects of parenting processes on measures of adolescent adjustment (health-compromising and violent behaviors) in a sample of high-risk, inner-city, poor African American youth N = 2,867). Parenting processes played an important role in this dangerous developmental milieu. For male…

Despite the educational reform initiatives outlined in programs similar to and in the American 2000 plan, conspicuously absent is any in-depth discussion regarding the growing rate of poverty among youth in inner cities. It is a poverty which engulfed one in seven youth in 1970, one in six in 1980, one in five in 1990, and one in four in 2000.…

In this article, the authors review the literature on orphanhood, schooling, and the role of the extended family system in supporting the education of orphans in Burkina Faso. They also summarize the historical, social, and economic context of this study. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of orphanhood on children's access to…

This article presents the results of a study that was conducted as an effort to identify the needs of sex workers as potential beneficiaries of future HIV prevention and empowerment activities. The purpose of this study was to assess the situation and needs of sex workers in the context of HIV/AIDS. Data were collected from one of the small…