Background: School improvement initiatives in England have focused on urban areas, which have traditionally been home to larger numbers of poor and underperforming pupils. Previous research has found that rural regions of the country have had higher overall educational attainment due to their greater affluence. However, that broad picture could be…

The expansion of higher education leads to a number of consequences. The case of Russia has both specific features and features common to processes taking place in other countries. This paper offers a retrospective description of educational system manipulation and changes that have occurred due to general transformations in Russia. The new labor…

Many students from disadvantaged homes participating in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 were classified as academic resilient (called "disadvantaged high achiever", the DHA in this study). In comparison with peers of comparable home background status, there were also students from advantaged homes performing…

Background: Stunting continues to affect young children as a global nutritional disorder. The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence, associated risk factors and spatial clustering for stunting in a disadvantaged South African District. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional weighted survey of households was conducted in the iLembe…

Widening participation programmes aim to increase the progression of students from low socio-economic status (SES) groups to higher education. This research proposes that the human capabilities approach is a good justice-based framework within which to consider the social and cultural capital processes that impact upon the educational capabilities…

Unconditional cash transfer programs are a form of structural intervention to address poverty, a "fundamental cause" of disease. Such programs increasingly aim to build resilience to sustain improved outcomes and provide a solid foundation for longer term transformations. As such, there is a need to understand what resilience means in…

This paper assesses the impact of welfare reform's parental work requirements on low-income children's cognitive and social-emotional development. The identification strategy exploits an important feature of the work requirement rules--namely, age-of-youngest-child exemptions--as a source of quasi-experimental variation in first-year maternal…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand elementary school principals' perceptions about what teachers need to know and be able to do in the classroom in order to teach all students equitably. In addition, this study sought to understand what attitudes and belief systems are needed by teachers in order for them to effectively meet…

The current article presents a multifaceted model of risk and resilience that employs selected lenses to reveal insights from a variety of disciplines. This enhanced model, originally based on Bronfenbrenner's (1989) ecological framework, was developed to interpret the results of an ongoing study, conducted by the first two authors, of students'…

Media literacy educators talk about the importance of developing essential social skills, such as collaboration, by using video production in the classroom. Video production with disadvantaged youth can also play a role of art therapy, as students use their creativity to come to terms with traumatizing pasts. This paper offers an account of a…

This chapter introduces the innovative field-based studies on disadvantaged men that are featured in this volume. Together, these studies of disadvantaged men from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and both urban and nonurban settings complement and extend recent discussions of emerging adulthood, which typically conceptualizes the transition…

In this essay, Harry Brighouse and Gina Schouten outline four standards for judging whether to support the chartering of a new school within a given jurisdiction. The authors pose the following questions to a hypothetical school board member: Will the school increase equality of opportunity? Will it benefit the least-advantaged students in the…

This report presents a summary of the findings of Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 monitoring reviews, fulfilling the reporting requirement, Section 641A(f), of the Head Start Act. It highlights the enhancements made to the FY 2014 monitoring review system, summarizes grantee review outcomes, and describes the types of findings most commonly identified in FY…

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) supports mentoring for children and youth from disadvantaged circumstances through several of their programs. CNCS believes that caring and capable adults can make a critical difference in the lives of children and youth in need. Mentoring is a proven method to ensure students complete…

How can national nonprofits provide expanded learning opportunities to as many children as possible while maintaining program quality and financial stability? Wallace grantees, researchers, experts in nonprofit strategy, communications professionals and foundation staff members offered varied answers to this question at a November 2013 gathering,…