This paper discusses the importance of equity and quality education in K-12 schools and how employing equity and quality strategies in classroom instructional practices and school culture can positively change children's lives. Educational achievement is a matter of the home, school, and community working in concert to build confidence in a…

Student success efforts often focus on issues related to students' college-readiness, but the authors of a recent book, "Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success," challenge higher education professionals to take a different approach. The admission of increasingly greater numbers of students from…

Early care and education for many children in the U.S. is in crisis. The period between birth and kindergarten is a critical time for child development, and socioeconomic disparities that begin early in children's lives contribute to starkly different long-term outcomes for adults. Yet, compared to other advanced economies, high-quality child care…

In this article, the author presents a review of his extended research engagement with disadvantaged young people and their education. He challenges the dominant neoliberal model of school reform based on business values and the "managerial school" as alien to educational values. He introduces various stages of research he and his…

Ferguson, Missouri, has been characterized as an archetype of structural inequality and segregation. Several questions guide this investigation of Ferguson and its surrounding region. How did policies, practices, and folkways help to create the conditions in Ferguson and the broader metropolitan region? The regional segregation regime's history…

The prevailing school reform dogma is wrong: Schools alone can't be expected to make up for the impediments to learning that are commonly associated with poverty, the authors say. Disadvantaged children need and deserve great teachers and schools, and they need many other sources of support. The question though, is how much would those extra…

Federal policy changes for Head Start (HS) elevate the importance of measured academic performance over other traditional program aims, particularly those associated with the social-emotional development of children. Concerned about the possible effects of these changes on children, based on observations and interviews, detailed portraits of…

What are acute poverty challenges for culturally disadvantaged school communities across the United States? How do practicing teacher-researchers, pursuing advanced degrees, view this issue and the 21st century skills and dispositions classroom teachers need to foster change? Curious about this topic from the viewpoints of teachers who are…

The state of tertiary education in South Africa is not adequately meeting the needs of its populace. The system in place does not effectively nor appropriately target the racial group of students which forms the democratic majority. This paper portrays the reasons why these students are not succeeding on the basis of a mismatch between their…

Arts education and special education within public schools have faced similar challenges in the wake of school reform. Services and programming have been reduced, leaving a larger gap in resources and accessibility. Because of loopholes in policy, new reform initiatives such as vouchers and charter schools will continue to marginalize students…

Raising academic standards while eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students are among America's primary national educational goals. According to a growing body of research, America will attain its goals of equity and preparing students to function effectively as citizens and productive workers only through a…

There is growing evidence among researchers and international organisations that quality of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), and ultimately the outcomes for children and families--especially disadvantaged ones--is dependent on well-educated and competent staff, and that a lack of higher pre-service training can be partly compensated by…

The author discusses the boarding school model as a schooling alternative to improve life chances for disadvantaged youth, particularly African American youth, by positively meeting their social and educational needs. Bourdieu, Coleman, and other social scientists purported that these needs can be better met by exposing students to social and…

In this report, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) highlight instructional and community-based strategies for strong public schools in Georgia. The authors offer eight essential, evidence-based strategies for success: (1) Access to high quality early childhood and pre-K education; (2)…

This article presents a model of teacher research supported by academic partners to develop a better understanding of the barriers to education faced by young people growing up in poverty. It critiques politicians' demands for teachers to "close the gap" for ignoring the cumulative intergenerational effects of deprivation. The authors…