Most state boards of education create or collaborate on strategic plans to crystallize a vision, goals, and strategies for public education. These plans often include long-run goals around postsecondary readiness, high-quality educators, and student academic achievement. Many of the newest plans, however, diverge from preceding ones by addressing…

Aging of the U.S. population raises numerous public policy issues about which gerontological researchers, policy experts, and practitioners have much to contribute. However, the means by which aging-related public policy is influenced are not always apparent. Drawing on experience working in the U.S. Senate and other settings as Health and Aging…

Since the remarkable work of Pierre Bourdieu, the concept of cultural capital has gained wide popularity along with theoretical and conceptual debates. This trend represents the social-structural change from materialism to postmaterialism. However, there are few empirical studies which find the cause and effect of cultural capital. Based on…

There is a growing interest in quality of life as an integrated approach to addressing key social, environmental and economic determinants of health. The University of Saskatchewan's Community-University Institute for Social Research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (grant #410-2004-0669) has examined the process and…

Presents nine recommendations developed at the 1992 Policy Issue Forum of the Aspen Institute's Program on Policy Issues in Energy and Resources. The underlying theme is that the world is entering a new era of environmental policy formation. Issues a call for a national strategy for environmental management. (SLD)

Developing social indicators of basic human needs involves (1) recognizing the problems in selection, (2) identifying the criteria for making selections, (3) choosing which basic needs to cover, and (4) selecting the indicators. The social indicators are to help formulate U.S. foreign policy and will be used by the State Department's Bureau of…

This article argues that it is essential to improve the U.S. health care system and to cut costs. If unchecked, health care costs could rise to 20% of the gross domestic product by the turn of the century, leaving substantially fewer financial resources for other costs such as education. (SLD)

This report provides a statistical profile for thinking about education and development decisions in North Carolina. It profiles the state primarily in terms of population patterns, economy, labor force, education, and environment; secondarily in terms of health and social services, infrastructure and aspects of government performance. State and…

Structural and cultural inequalities hinder the attainment of approximately 25 million rural American youth. A characteristic lack of education and employment opportunities is combined with a restricted realm of attainment in rural areas. Rural people are negatively stereotyped by the mass society, as seen in an examination of linguistic terms…

Because ill-clothed, sick, or hungry migrant children learn poorly, the Task Force has emphasized the migrant health situation in 1979. Migrant workers have a 33% shorter life expectancy, a 25% higher infant mortality rate, and a 25% higher death rate from tuberculosis and other communicable diseases than the national average. Common among…

The effects of three types of work-life conflict in Canada were examined by using data from a set of work and family studies that were conducted in 1991 and 2001. The studies focused on the effects of the following types of conflict: (1) work overload; (2) work-to-family interference (where work gets in the way of family); and (3) family-to-work…

Much of the discussion surrounding marriage promotion policies have little basis in the reality of life in low-income communities. Research suggests that much of the income differential between low-income and middle class women is the result of differences in educational attainment, labor market experience, and access to labor supply rather than…

This study explored faculty views about a new concept, departmental vision. Since the literature presents many different views of what the term "vision" encompasses, this study sought to establish criteria useful in an academic setting. The study was conducted at a large midwestern public research university; data were collected through…