This issue brief discusses the most recent and reliable research on early care and education and its implications for policy making. The brief summarizes recent discoveries about early brain development and then reviews research evaluating: (1) child care; (2) small-scale model early education programs providing enriched services to disadvantaged…

This report was presented and discussed at a seminar on "The Secondary Education Curriculum in Latin America: The View of Specialists" which took place at UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning. It also incorporates information and comments put forward at the seminar by participants from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and…

In 2001, a decision by the New York State Supreme Court in a landmark school funding case, Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), Inc. v. State of New York, declared the current New York state funding system unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to replace it with a new cost-based system that ensures that every school district has sufficient…

A study examined enrollment patterns in the Texas public school system for four cohorts of students from 1993-94 to 1996-97. The 1996-97 cohort, for example, which began with students enrolled in the 9th grade for the first time in 1993-94, was followed for 4 years through expected graduation in 1996-97. The 1993-94 cohort included first-time 9th…

National math assessment data from 3,112 eighth-grade students in 123 schools were used to determine whether location (rural versus nonrural) affects student achievement when related student and school-level factors are taken into account. Findings indicate that rural schools outperformed nonrural schools in math achievement and that the…

This book examines the nature of persistent poverty in two impoverished towns in the coalfields of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta and a contrasting social milieu in a prosperous but remote rural mill town in northern New England. Drawing on 350 in-depth interviews and census data, the book analyzes the dynamics of poverty, politics, and…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's (AISD's) Account for Learning evaluation report and action plan for 1999-2002.

With increasing use of computers in education and in the larger society, it is important that minorities (including Blacks and Hispanics), the disadvantaged, and females, acquire computer literacy to be able to get into the mainstream, compete with the more advantaged, and function in an increasingly complex world. (Author/MJL)

Presents an approach through which social service agencies and community-based organizations can uncover Title VI violations in decision-making activities of policy and planning structures and in the decision making of supervisory staff and service providers. Discusses two categories of violations: disparity and exclusivity. (Author/GC)

Urban schools' test scores are improving, including those for poor and minority children, particularly because of effective school techniques and minimum competency standards. However, urban elementary, not secondary, schools account for most of the improvement, and many educators feel that emphasizing test scores teaches only limited skills, not…

Describes a program in Colombia to enhance learning of lower class children by emphasizing acceptance, risk taking, and problem solving in a supportive environment. Parental involvement is stressed. The back-to-the-basics movement is discussed as an educational strategy antithetical to the author's philosophy. (DB)

A working knowledge of governmental health and welfare services can help nursing students in their professional work. The self-instructional module described by the author outlines the structure of government health and welfare agencies, explains the different types of benefits, and aims at clarifying personal values regarding the economically…

A variety of educational and economic changes can be seen as part of a tendency toward deschooling or modification of the curriculum. One ironic factor is that the skills needed to maintain capitalism have so changed, that in producing them the capacity to critically evaluate its merits is created. (JN)

The impact of the 1980s on dental practitioners, dental schools, and those needing dental care, particularly the poor, is described. Economic forecasts and opinion polls are discussed in the belief that deans of dental schools can move to significantly limit the deleterious effects of this period. (MLW)