This report summarizes the responses of students in two Philadelphia high schools to the second year of implementation of the Talent Development comprehensive school reform model. Both schools served low-income, predominantly African American and Hispanic American students. The Talent Development model was intended to improve schools facing…

This study attempted to estimate special education expenditures at kindergarten from material and infant medical and sociodemographic factors known at birth. The study consisted of all students born in Florida between September 1, 1990 and August 31, 1991 who subsequently attended kindergarten in Florida. A total of 125,430 birth records were…

As part of the 2002 Current Population Survey, this report presents information on several characteristics of children, covering different aspects of their lives. It focuses on demographic characteristics of the child population of the United States and family living arrangements, including single parent families, cohabiting parent families, and…

A conference brought together the leaders of the 11 projects funded by the National Science Foundation's Rural Systemic Initiative (RSI) to reflect upon their efforts to improve mathematics and science education in poor rural communities. A variety of themes emerged. The RSI projects serve small, rural communities suffering from decades of…

This document describes the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, which California instituted in response to the 1996 federal welfare-to-work legislation. The CalWORKs program also has the mandate to develop employment opportunities for welfare students. Community colleges are required to spend their CalWORKs…

This paper describes the Essential Skills Program at the Community College of Denver (CCD), which functions as an education broker and a labor market intermediary that coordinates the services offered by CCD with the needs of a number of Department of Social Service clients. The Essential Skills Program (ESP) supplements the services offered by…

This paper reviews the changes in federal requirements for welfare recipients and the response by California's community colleges, in particular Los Angeles City College (LACC) and Los Angeles Trade Technical College (LATTC), to welfare-to-work legislation. In 1985, the California Legislature enacted GAIN (Greater Avenues for Independence) as its…

Enacted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the E-rate provides discounts to public and private schools, libraries, and consortia on telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal networking. Discounts vary based on the poverty level of the community. The first section of this report presents findings from surveys returned…

This paper investigates the impact of economic and social reforms in New Zealand since the mid 1980s on the well-being of children. Although the reforms emphasizing the role of market forces and markedly reducing the welfare state and the direct role of the state in the economy were among the most sweeping in scope and scale in any industrialized…

This report explores promising welfare-to-work programs and practices of states and localities as they balance supply- with demand-side strategies to help welfare recipients and low-wage workers work their way out of poverty while meeting employers' needs for reliable workers. Chapter 2 describes the new environment created by changes in the…

Noting that the national, state, and local elections in 2000 provide an important opportunity for child advocates nationwide to make their message known, this kit is designed to assist child advocates in their electoral advocacy efforts. The kit includes questions for candidates, ideas for action within individual communities and states, voter…

Faulty laws, unfair practices, and years of tradition in the workplace keep women from economic equality. The Economic Equity Act proposed by Congress will address inequalities in tax and retirement matters, the need for better dependent care, nondiscrimination in insurance, regulatory reform, and child support enforcement. (IS)

Examined psychometric properties of Parenting Stress Index. Subjects were 191 low-income, urban African American mothers. Found acceptable subscale internal consistency and stability over six months. Concurrent validity revealed high convergence across measures among mothers reporting consistent stress. Subjects reported elevated stress levels in…

Demographic influences on the makeup of urban university student populations are discussed, focusing on how demographic trends can shed light on some current debates in higher education. Issues discussed include welfare and education, ethnicity and poverty, migration patterns, the aging population, and children of Baby Boomers. (MSE)

Examines mobility's underside, including confused and rootless children and frustrated teachers. One in six third-graders has attended at least three schools. Schools with the highest mobility rates are poor, urban, and increasingly less accountable. Educators cannot remedy mobility's social causes, but are helping transient kids with electronic…