Describes the "Jump Start" program, developed with Library Services and Technology Act funds and designed to provide more pre-school services to children in a poor community in Chicago. Discusses the project plan; workshops for area child care providers and future workers in the field; collection development; outreach to educational institutions;…

In this article, I present the findings of a single-site case study which examined the role of gender in constituent group perceptions of effective female leadership. First, a brief description of the Wildrose School community context is presented followed by an overview of relevant literature on female leadership. The emergent themes regarding…

Landsman explores the qualities that enable teachers to effectively work with students who are homeless or live in extreme poverty. The most effective strategy seems to be maintaining high expectations. Successful teachers "cut deals" with students, finding ways to connect school work to students' life concerns and helping them successfully to…

Young children with disabilities are significantly more likely to live in poverty than their peers without disabilities. Exposure to poverty creates additional risk of adverse outcomes for these vulnerable children. In this article, the following key circumstances contributing to this increased risk of impoverishment are analyzed: elevated costs…

Violence exposure among rural youths is a significant public health problem, yet little research has been conducted on violence in this setting. This study explored rural youths' direct and indirect experience of violence in the neighborhood, school, and home. The author used hierarchical regression analyses to explore youth violence exposure,…

Despite political rhetoric to the contrary, higher education (HE) in Papua New Guinea remains heavily Westernized, resulting in an alienation of HE, and its students, from the development needs of the country. Taking the discipline of psychology as an example, indigenization is not a complete solution to this alienation, since many of the issues…

This introductory article discusses a study that investigated how at-risk students are defined in each of the Canadian provinces and Northern Territories and similarities in the definitions in the policy-making and policy implementation arenas. Different types of students that may be at-risk are described. (Contains references.) (CR)

This study addresses urban Appalachian girls and identities as constructed within and outside of the written discourses of the institution known as school. Drawing on poststructuralist (Weedon, 1997) and sociocultural (Gee, 1996) perspectives of language, identities and discourses (Gee, 1996), and on the feminist philosopher Griffiths (1995), it…

Value-added models, which rate schools for effectiveness while taking into account the poverty and other socioeconomic status of the students, are generating increased interest. This paper describes the use of one such model to evaluate whether school ratings changed when three new programs were introduced: the "Target Teach" curriculum…

Faced with the evident impossibility of providing free or significantly subsidized secondary and higher education to all, many poor and middle income countries choose to educate only those students who are most promising, using public examinations as means of distributing scarce resources. This paper investigates the inequality implications of…

This analysis is about the role of poverty in school reform. Data from a number of sources are used to make five points. First, that poverty in the United States is greater and of longer duration than in other rich nations. Second, that poverty, particularly among urban minorities, is associated with academic performance that is well below…

How to involve families in the formal education of their children is a question researchers and educators have been trying to answer since the first bricks were laid for the nation's public education system. A solution must be found, for family involvement has been proven to be associated with a myriad of stellar outcomes, including greater…

In this article, the author discusses the United South End Settlements' (USES) Arts Incentives Program (AIP), a clinically informed, arts-based, youth and community development program working with high-risk girls ages 11 to 19. These girls face a convergence of risk factors, such as trauma, abuse, neglect, poverty, substance abuse, and…

One of the main problems in Southern Africa in relation to HIV/AIDS is food insecurity. The vicious relation between malnutrition, HIV infection and AIDS impact drives individuals, households and communities in a downwards spiral of impoverishment. Although scientists and development practitioners have stressed the importance of interactive…

This study tested a developmental model of pathways to risky sexual behavior among South African adolescents. Participants comprised 633 adolescents, 12-17 years old, recruited from households in Durban, South Africa. Data were collected using in-person interviews. Topics included adolescents' sexual behaviors, household poverty levels, vulnerable…