After violence in poor immigrant neighborhoods shook the country last year, France responded by focusing more resources on schools facing the most pressing disadvantages. This article discusses on a project dubbed as "ambition reussite" or ambition success, which refocuses the extra resources granted to needy schools under France's…

Since 1990, the privately organized Teach For America has deployed more than 10,000 graduates to disadvantaged schools plagued by teacher shortages. The recruits take part in five-week summer institutes that include four weeks of student teaching. Because states have begun stepping up their requirements for Teach For America participants, most…

This paper is an empirical analysis of the determinants of crime in Virginia. Over a dozen explanatory variables that current literature suggests as important determinants of crime are collected. The data is from 1970 to 2000. These include economic, fiscal, demographic, political, and social variables. The regression results indicate that crime…

The study presented in this article focuses on strategic planning in developing countries, drawing on the author's experiences in a dozen developing countries in Asia and Africa and focus groups in three of those countries: Afghanistan, Madagascar, and South Africa. It looks at the special challenges faced by planners in developing countries and…

Researchers over the past two decades have increasingly recognized the importance of neighborhood contexts for youth development. For example, living in a disadvantaged neighborhood has been associated with a wide range of negative outcomes throughout the early years of the life course. However, neighborhoods likely have very different effects,…

It is difficult to know whether widening access to schools which provide a more academically oriented general education makes a difference to average educational achievement. We make use of reforms affecting admission to the "high ability" track in Northern Ireland, but not England. The comparison of educational outcomes between Northern…

We tested the structure of the Pictorial Scale of Competence and Social Acceptance (PSPCSA) across groups of first and second grade children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. We used confirmatory factor analysis, including latent mean structures analysis, to test the fit of competing PSPCSA factor models and examined invariance across…

According to the Head Start Act (1998), children are income-eligible for the program if their "families' incomes are below the poverty line." There are a number of statutory exceptions to this general rule and, according to the Head Start Bureau, the result is that about 6 percent of the children in the program are not poor. But the major national…

The aim of this study was to assess rates of childhood disability as indicated by functional limitation of motor, sensory, or self-care skills in children living in severely-distressed neighborhoods. For a neighborhood in the US Census Track to be considered severely distressed, three of the following four characteristics need to be present:…

Background: Individual differences in conduct problems arise in part from proneness to anger/frustration and poor self-regulation of behavior. However, the genetic and environmental etiology of these connections is not known. Method: Using a twin design, we examined genetic and environmental covariation underlying the well-documented correlations…

Gordon Berlin discusses the nation's long struggle to reduce poverty in families with children, and proposes a counterintuitive solution--rewarding the work of individuals. He notes that policymakers' difficulty in reducing family poverty since 1973 is attributable to two intertwined problems--falling wages among low-skilled workers and the…

In this article, the author discusses a project that turns residents of some of South Leeds' most deprived neighbourhoods into community researchers and is giving people an opportunity to make concrete, positive changes to their communities. Armed with homemade tools, some coloured pens, and masses of post-it notes, the "Community…

This paper documents changing patterns of concentrated poverty in nonmetro areas. Data from the Decennial U.S. Census Summary Files show that poverty rates--both overall and for children--declined more rapidly in nonmetro than metro counties in the 1990s. The 1990s also brought large reductions in the number of high-poverty nonmetro counties and…

Research in the neurobiological, behavioral, and social sciences has dramatically increased our capacity to provide effective intervention for economically disadvantaged children. According to Neuman, however, U.S. policymakers have made little use of this body of research to improve the prospects of children at risk. This article discusses seven…

Objective: To investigate factors influencing rural and urban adolescents' food perceptions during a time of nutritional transition in Cameroon, Africa. Design: Qualitative in-depth interviews. Settings: Yaounde urban and Bandja rural areas. Participants: Fifteen adolescents 12 to 15 years old purposely selected from schools in urban and rural…