This paper provides a basic understanding of the Pell Grant program and summarizes the evidence regarding its effectiveness. The Basic Educational Opportunities Program, known as the Pell Grant program, began in 1973 as a means of providing disadvantaged students access to a postsecondary education. The Pell Grant program has tried to keep up with…

Two decades ago, many of the strengths and advantages of small rural schools were understood. These include a greater sense of community, which enables closer relations between faculty and administration, between teachers and students, and among teachers; less violence; better school-community relationships; more parent participation; greater…

This study examined how five high-poverty Texas high schools, which had attained notable achievement levels on selected academic indicators, reached their present levels of performance. The schools shared several characteristics: most students were economically disadvantaged; the location was in a large urban district; there was no selective…

This report represents the findings and recommendations of the "Resolving the Digital Divide: Information, Access, and Opportunity" conference, the first in a series of conferences designed to provide feedback to the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) on issues of the digital divide. Conference panelists were a…

An Australian national task force examined a number of areas related to achieving educational equality for Australia's Indigenous peoples. Young Indigenous Australians are disproportionately represented among young people who do not successfully negotiate the transition from school to independence and employment. This paper focuses on issues of…

Since the mid-1970s, participatory research (PR) has provided an alternative approach to those development systems that rely on outside experts and implement predetermined solutions. PR empowers disadvantaged people by recognizing them as co-researchers working together to gather information and implement solutions to their problems. This paper…

This monograph examines the special educational needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children and youth who are also diagnosed as having behavior disorders (BD). Following an introductory chapter, chapters 2 and 3 address the specific populations of Asian Americans (usually underrepresented in the BD population) and African…

This report describes the British Columbia Human Rights Commission's activities during 2000-01. The Commission held public hearings to learn about barriers that prevent Aboriginal students from full participation in the British Columbia education system, and published a report on the findings with recommendations for improving educational…

Schoolwide programs form the centerpiece of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act's vision of enabling programs to work together and support the overall reforms of states, school districts, and schools. A schoolwide program may now use Title I, Part A funds coupled with other federal education funds to upgrade the school's entire educational…

This report presents preliminary recommendations for indicators and predictors of dependence on income from means-tested assistance programs, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamps, and Supplemental Security Income. It includes an assessment of the ability of existing data collection efforts to provide the data needed to…

This anthology is intended to serve as an introduction to some of the big issues that shaped and continue to shape policy, practice, and debate over public schooling. Perspectives on these issues are presented in 32 chapters: (1) "The Educational Situation" (John Dewey); (2) "Progress or Regress?" (David Tyack and Larry Cuban);…

This paper reviews how the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) will operate regarding different groups of students and schools, examining factors that could delay or dilute its guarantee of educational accountability for the academic achievement of all children. It discusses such issues as: what kinds of tests must be used and when, who must…

In the second year of a federally funded program encouraging disadvantaged youth to prepare for college, 1,955 parents and 1,520 students at 23 middle schools in southern West Virginia were surveyed concerning their perceptions of and aspirations for postsecondary education. Findings indicate that students and their parents had a generally…

In 1989, the University of Waikato (New Zealand) established Te Timatanga Hou, a program of pre-university remedial study for disadvantaged Maori. Many targeted students come from rural schools that do not offer a seventh-form year nor a wide range of university entrance subjects. Students undertake 1 year of intensive pre-university training…

Early deprivation causes serious disruption in the development of brain architecture and in the behaviors related to the affected brain functions. Some brain structures, and the broad categories of development that depend on them, show more "plasticity," or sensitivity to disruption and intervention for longer periods of time, than…