The "2010 State Preschool Yearbook" is the eighth in a series of annual reports profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest Yearbook presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2009-2010 school year. The first report in this series focused on programs for the 2001-2002 school year and…

Americans have concluded that the achievement gap is the fault of "failing schools" because it makes no common sense that it could be otherwise. After all, how much money a family has, or a child's skin color, should not influence how well that child learns to read. If teachers know how to teach and if schools permit no distractions,…

Empirical analyses of higher education subsidies are commonly misleading because they disregard appropriate age composition in the parental reference population. Further distortions occur depending on parents' categorization by income, occupation, or education. This paper addresses these issues using empirical data from Chile, France, and…

This report concludes the main portion of MDRC's Project on Devolution and Urban Change, an eight-year effort to chart the course of welfare reform in four big urban counties: Los Angeles, Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Miami-Dade, and Philadelphia. The goal of the study was to find out whether federal welfare reform would lead to meaningful changes in…

"KidsCount in Colorado!" is an annual publication of the Colorado Children's Campaign, which provides the best available state- and county-level data to measure and track the education, health and general well-being of the state's children. KidsCount in Colorado! informs policy debates and community discussions, serving as a valuable…

This volume examines conceptual frameworks and models that flow from scholars' definitions and operationalizations of social class: status attainment theory, human capital theory, the financial nexus model, Bourdieuian theory, and critical race theory. Since students often have multiple social locations that affect their educational process, the…

This paper presents a methodology for estimating the full cost of parental time allocated to child-care activities at home. Building upon the human capital hypothesis, a model is developed in which the cost of an hour diverted from labor market activity is seen as consisting of three components: 1) direct wages foregone; 2) investments in…

Prepared as testimony to the California Assembly Special Committee on Community Colleges, this report provides information on community college student income levels, financial aid, and estimates of unmet financial need and ensuing consequences for students and the colleges. First, questions raised by the committee regarding family income levels…

Using High School and Beyond longitudinal data for 1980, this paper shows that government subsidized student aid substantially improved access to higher education for low income individuals. The analysis also shows that wealth neutrality (equal probability of college attendance across all incomes) was not achieved. (10 references) (MLH)

This policy brief provides an introduction for a series of 10 such briefs examining policies that seek to increase family income by encouraging, supporting, and rewarding parental work. The purpose of the series is to synthesize what is known from research about the effectiveness of various policies in increasing parental employment, either by…

Since the early 1980s, college tuitions have soared, and state and federal governments have sought new ways to help students and families meet the costs of attendance. Annual state and federal appropriations to traditional student aid programs have more than doubled in the past two decades. In addition, the federal government created the Hope…

Describes a study attempting to determine the relationship between parental income and academic achievement of children in a developing area such as Transkei. Includes details of the samples, questionnaires, and results. Concludes that among children of low socioeconomic status, parental income had a positive relationship with academic…

A survey of 155 Canadian economics graduate students in 17 institutions found most came from high-income families and generally had leftist political attitudes. They share attitudes with U.S. economics graduate students more than with Canadian or U.S. professionals, and favor learning of technical skills over learning about institutions, history,…

To help inform policymakers and the public about the progress of education in the United States, Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report, "The Condition of Education." This year's report presents 42 indicators on important topics and trends in U.S. education. These…

Tennessee Code Annotated (T.C.A.) Section 49-7-2 (c) (7) requires the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to "submit a biennial report to the governor and the general assembly, commenting upon major developments, trends, new policies, budgets and financial considerations which in the judgment of the commission will be useful to the governor…