Leveraging publicly available data about schools" absenteeism from the New Jersey Department of Education, the present study examined how neighborhood-level resource deprivation and violent crime related to chronic absenteeism in Passaic County's elementary, middle, and high schools. Results highlighted geographic disparities in Passaic…

A mainstay in NCLB and the Obama administration education plan is turning around low-performing schools. This study utilized surveys and interviews with school leaders from four turnaround urban high schools in Texas to understand student outcomes before and after school restructuring and reconstitution. Although some organizational changes were…

Investigated whether Chicago public school students were disadvantaged relative to students in other Illinois schools after accounting for background factors. Data on test scores, dropout rates, and school, community, and family characteristics indicated that Chicago's grade schools performed comparably to other schools, but Chicago's high schools…

Strain theory, which is widely criticized, presumes a negative relationship between social class and delinquency. The theory is strengthened with the following variables added to the analysis: (1) grade level, (2) social status, (3) achievement, (4) absences and dropout frequency, and (5) tracking. The paradigm of collective behavior may also be…

Studies 683 African-American, inner-city children in Chicago (Illinois), exposed to 4 to 6 years of early childhood education. Benefits seem to have lasted for girls but less so for boys. Reading scores for girls and boys at the program end were similar and equal to local and national norms. (JB)