It would be foolish to succumb to the view that the educational problems of America are limited to schools in poor neighborhoods or to students from disadvantaged families. Across the country, whether in suburban affluence or urban poverty, students' commitment to school is at an all-time low. This low level of student commitment is matched by…

This report provides an overview of Hispanic participation in education at the national level, in the state of Wisconsin, and in the Wisconsin Technical Colleges (WTCs). The first section provides national statistics, indicating that in 1990 Hispanics had a high school completion rate of 54.9%, more than 20 points below Black and 30 points below…

This paper identifies conditions in the lives of poor urban high school students that may cause classroom management problems. Urban student teachers are urged to look at these conditions from a humanistic perspective to help them understand their students and deal effectively with those problems. Specific urban secondary classroom management…

The death of Robert F. Wagner, Jr., the widely admired former deputy mayor of New York City, in 1993, halted collaboration on a planned book about solutions to urban problems. This collection, dedicated to his memory, takes up the legacy of the earlier book with discussion of the future of cities from the scholarly perspective, from the…

This book relates the story of urban Black Americans choosing to return "home" to the rural South. The book is based on research in rural areas in North and South Carolina, considered the top nonmetropolitan areas for Black Americans moving south. By 1975, the U.S. Census Bureau released the first numbers suggesting that the exodus of…

Hispanic parents have been slow to overcome their historical reluctance to turn their young children over to nonfamily members for care, but the educational boost preschool provides is particularly important for the one-quarter of Hispanic American families who are poor by Federal guidelines. This digest describes the strategies and programs…

This digest describes the creation and operation of after school programs for poor urban students. Schools often sponsor such programs and find the advantages to be the credibility lent by the school, continuity of care, and easy access to resources. Some of the disadvantages to school sponsorship are higher personnel costs, the possibility of…

This reports analyzes 1990 census data on populations, race, rurality, poverty, education, unemployment, and economic dependence for the Northeast, Midwest, West, and South. Special emphasis is placed on the South, its subregion the Black Belt, and Appalachia. The Black Belt region encompasses 623 counties in 11 southern states; these counties are…

This data book presents findings of the Kids Count project on current conditions faced by Louisiana children ages birth to 19 years of age. Data is presented in a table format by individual indicator for each of the parishes, and is further broken down by race. The first subject area addresses poverty and statistics on children receiving AFDC,…

This paper addresses issues involving the designing of new job training and education programs in central Appalachia in response to national policies for economic improvement. In March 1994, the Reemployment Act of 1994 was announced as the Clinton administration's response to problems caused by radical and worldwide economic restructuring. The…

Geared primarily toward the black community and published by the Children's Defense Fund, this report provides background materials and statistical data which communicate the status of black children in America and what can be done to improve it. There are 3 sections in the report. Part 1 describes the conditions of black children and the…

This report uses national and case-study data to address the degree to which limited-English-proficient (LEP) students are served by Chapter 1 programs. Although nationally the ethnic distribution of Chapter 1 funds has paralleled trends in the child-poverty population, there is great variation at the state and school-district level in the…

This report summarizes demographic information about rural populations in the United States and discusses a variety of issues that are relevant to rural youth poverty. Although recent poverty rates for rural areas were higher than urban poverty rates, the media and political forces have almost completely neglected the rural poor. Extensive census…

A policy forum featured a presentation by Linda Chavez on the public policy needs of the Puerto Rican community. The forum also included a panel of experts from the Puerto Rican community to provide critical feedback on Chavez's presentation. Chavez argued that Hispanic Americans can move into the mainstream of United States society, and that…

The book analyzes how the persistence of poverty in the United States has reversed liberal and conservative positions, in that the liberals seem increasingly resigned merely to treat the effects of poverty, while conservatives, who once thought that trying to eliminate poverty was futile, are looking for ways to eradicate its causes. New…