Studied the motivation of 60 black urban male tenth-graders, half achievers and half with lower achievement scores. Results suggest that if potential achievers are to be turned into achievers, teachers must focus on activities designed to foster intrinsic motivation. Techniques for working with low-income minority youth are outlined. (SLD)

The stories of five young black men growing up in the Roxbury area of Boston (Massachusetts) in the late 1960s and early 1970s illustrate the difficulties and coping required to reach adulthood in the city. The young men were part of the Pathways to Identity project of Harvard University, a longitudinal study that has, since 1966, interviewed 61…

In 1995, the Jobs Initiative, an 8-year, six-site demonstration project, was launched to attempt to improve access to family-supporting jobs for disadvantaged young adults in the inner city. The Jobs Initiative is providing seed money to develop and implement job strategies in six cities: Denver (Colorado); Milwaukee (Wisconsin); New Orleans…

The past several years have seen basic changes in policies and programs concerning poverty, work, and workforce development. The essence of the changes is putting work first, and many states and localities are building "Work First" into welfare-to-work programs funded under Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and many are adopting…

Describes the demographic characteristics, sexual behavior, and fatherhood status of a sample of 150 minority males under the age of 19 years from urban, low-income neighborhoods. The majority (90.6 percent) reported sexual experiences before the age of 15, and 30 percent were aware that their partners had become pregnant. (FMW)

Describes the Family Focus for School Success Project, a model program that provides education and support to language minority families in poverty and their children through comprehensive early intervention for children at risk of academic failure because of their home environments. An evaluation of the first year's efforts with 69 families…

Schools can do a much better job of educating students, especially low income and minority students, if they draw on information already available and replicate educational programs that have been successful. Suggestions are made for replicating proven programs. (SLD)

Youth activism represents a promising synthesis of two broad goals in moral education: the development of moral judgments about the social and political world and the ability to implement one's principles in action. Among working-class and poor youth, such commitments often take place in a context where inequities in resources, opportunities, and…

This study examines school and work barrier beliefs about the limitations of education for future career rewards and perceived supports for attaining the educational and career aspirations of low-income, inner-city, African American, Hispanic/Latino(a), and Caribbean immigrant youth. The authors find that higher levels of school and work barrier…

Many commentators have expressed alarm over the increase in the number of single-parent families in the United States over the past four decades. The growth in single-parent families has been fueled by a rise in the number of out-of-wedlock births. Whether children are more likely to suffer social and economic problems when raised by one parent…

Catholic schools have had astonishing success in working with inner-city children. Recent research has confirmed that the performance of students in Catholic schools surpasses that of urban public school students, usually at lower cost. A recent survey also indicated that 83% of public school parents and 82% of inner-city poor parents want…

In order to increase the knowledge base on the public policy issues pertaining to family homelessness, Columbia University and the Institute for Children & Poverty designed and implemented an extensive survey on the demographics of homeless families. Data on more than 140 variables were collected from 743 homeless heads-of-households in the spring…

This paper examines maternal influences on daughters' choices of occupations. Using a survey of high school seniors in Charlotte (North Carolina) as the primary data source, the career choices of adolescent girls and the influences of their mothers' occupations on their occupational expectations were studied. Previous research has suggested that…

Reports on research conducted in poor Puerto Rican households in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) that shows the complex relationships between household members' survival strategies, residential mobility, home-school connections, and students' learning. Results from five families show that household stability is the strongest factor affecting students'…

Studied collaborative reasoning in 86 seventh-grade minority students in an urban low-income school. Students who collaborated had higher percentages of fully correct explanations on the posttest than those who worked alone. Collaborative experiences were beneficial for reasoning about unfamiliar, moderately difficult, nonverbal problems. (SLD)