Search

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented numerous challenges to students across the United States, particularly those who are parents enrolled in community colleges. California's community college system serves a diverse student population, including a significant number of non-traditional, working adults who are also parents. These students have faced unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic, including the difficulties of balancing childcare responsibilities with academic and professional obligations. This paper summarizes the preliminary findings of a study that intends to contribute to the crucial conversation around childcare needs among community college students. The focus of this study was understanding the experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) mothers with young children and the impact of COVID-19 on their educational experiences in community colleges across the state of California.

This paper asks whether universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) raises parents' earnings and how much these earnings effects matter for evaluating the economic returns to UPK programs. Using a randomized lottery design, we estimate the effects of enrolling in a full-day UPK program in New Haven, Connecticut on parents' labor market outcomes as well as educational expenditures and children's academic performance. During children's pre-kindergarten years, UPK enrollment increases weekly childcare coverage by 11 hours. Enrollment has limited impacts on children's academic outcomes between kindergarten and 8th grade, likely due to a combination of rapid effect fadeout and substitution away from other programs of similar quality but with shorter days. In contrast, parents work more hours, and their earnings increase by 21.7%. Parents' earnings gains persist for at least six years after the end of pre-kindergarten. Excluding impacts on children, each dollar of net government expenditure yields $5.51 in after-tax benefits for families, almost entirely from parents' earnings gains. This return is large compared to other labor market policies. Conversely, excluding earnings gains for parents, each dollar of net government expenditure yields only $0.46 to $1.32 in benefits, lower than many other education and children's health interventions. We conclude that the economic returns to investing in UPK are high, largely because of full-day UPK's effectiveness as an active labor market policy. [This research received financial support from the Tobin Center for Economic Policy.]

A college credential can expand the range of career opportunities available to young adults. However, existing barriers to enrollment for prospective students pose equity gaps in college access and success, particularly for Black college aspirants. In Florida, racial and ethnic disparities in college enrollment contribute to disparities in educational attainment. Only 31% of Black Floridians hold a college degree. This report examines the attainment gap by exploring various factors contributing to Florida college applicants' decisions to enroll. This paper uses survey and enrollment information from two Florida community colleges (Hillsborough Community College and Miami Dade College) to identify factors related to college applicants' enrollment decisions. In the summer of 2021, nearly 15,000 applicants to the two colleges were surveyed about their pre-college experiences, and roughly 1,200 responded, resulting in a response rate of 8%. Of the respondents, 997 applicants identified as Black (i.e., African American, Black Hispanic, African, or West Indian/Caribbean).

Do Americans hold a consistent set of opinions about their public schools and how to improve them? From 2013 to 2018, over 5,000 unique respondents participated in more than one consecutive iteration of the annual, nationally representative "Education Next" poll, offering an opportunity to examine individual-level attitude stability on education policy issues over a six-year period. The proportion of participants who provide the same response to the same question over multiple consecutive years greatly exceeds the amount expected to occur by chance alone. We also find that teachers offer more consistent responses than their non-teaching peers. By contrast, we do not observe similar differences in attitude stability between parents of school-age children and their counterparts without children.

College students who are parents or caregivers of dependent children make up more than one in five U.S. undergraduates. Colleges need basic information about the experiences and outcomes of the student parents they serve, since these students face distinct challenges, including high rates of economic insecurity and significant time and caregiving demands that can affect their educational outcomes (Institute for Women's Policy Research and Ascend at the Aspen Institute 2019). This briefing paper discusses why data on student parents are critical to increasing equity in college outcomes, and reviews existing and potential new data sources on undergraduate college students with children. It also provides recommendations for improving data collection efforts around parent status, including examples of how these data can be collected by institutions of higher education.

As one of the world's fastest-growing economies, Bangladesh aims to become a middle-income country by 2021 and a high-income country by 2041. To attain these goals, the country must face global challenges head on by strengthening existing industries and preparing itself for industries that have yet to emerge. To do this, it must tap the full potential of its human capital. Although Bangladesh made strides in access to education during the Millennium Development Goals era, poor girls continue to fall behind despite their ambitions to lead the country to change--a gap that affects their work outcomes once they leave school. The skills that Bangladesh's youth need to thrive in a world of rapid technological advancement will require a response by policymakers and practitioners alike. This policy paper unveils the barriers to educational opportunities for rural girls in Bangladesh, focusing specifically on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. It reflects upon a survey of 500 rural secondary-level schoolgirls, 100 parents, and 75 teachers from 30 rural schools of the district of Gazipur. The study identified barriers to STEM education at three levels--individual, institutional, and societal--that revealed both systemic and socio-cultural issues that actors in policy and practice can tackle. It provides clear recommendations for action and examples of practices that have started to fill the gap globally. If Bangladesh is to accomplish its goals and tap the potential of all its youth for rapid development, breaking the barriers to STEM education for all children is a key place to start. [This report was co-authored with Amanda Braga.]

College is one of the most reliable routes to economic security for parents and their children. College credentials are linked to increased earnings, higher rates of employment, lower poverty rates, and improved economic and educational outcomes among the children of college graduates. Student parents and their families stand to gain disproportionally from college degrees, through both short-term economic returns and long-term multigenerational benefits. College students with children, however, face financial and time demands that challenge their ability to enroll and persist in college. Students with children spend substantial time caring for their families, often work long hours, and face significant financial insecurity, which can make it difficult for them to complete their educational programs. College promise programs, sometimes referred to as "free college" programs, offer invaluable college opportunities for many students who face obstacles to higher education. This briefing paper focuses on characteristics of the student parent population that make inclusive college promise programs an imperative for improving equity in college access and completion.

In this report we present results from our study of the effect of SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] and WIC [Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children] participation during childhood on food insecurity risk in young adulthood. We also examined the effect of parental nutritional knowledge and childhood food involvement on food insecurity in young adulthood. We used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Original Childhood Development Supplement. Our balanced panel (n=1,305) was comprised of individuals who were 0-12 years old in 1997, had data on SNAP and income from their year of birth through 2015, food insecurity data in 2015/2017, and had moved out of their parents' home and started their own household prior to 2015. We estimated logistic models using sample, cluster and strata weights to generate nationally representative results. We find a small, but non-statistically significant effect of SNAP and WIC participation during childhood on odds of being food insecure during young adulthood. When examining change in food security from 1999-2015, we find that participation in SNAP during ages 0-5 years (OR 2.36, 95% CI: 0.99, 5.61), and during ages 12-18 years (OR 2.68, 95% CI: 1.09, 6.57) is associated with a higher odds of being more secure in 2015 than in 1999 compared to low income children who were eligible for, but did not participate in SNAP. Participation in both SNAP and WIC during ages 0-5 predicts higher odds (OR: 4.47, 95% CI: 2.04, 9.78) of being more secure in young adulthood than in childhood compared to low income children who were eligible for, but did not participate in SNAP or WIC. Finally, we saw a statistically significant protective effect of high parental nutritional knowledge (in 1999) and child time spent preparing food (during ages 5-12) on food insecurity risk in 2015-2017. SNAP and WIC, as well as parental nutritional knowledge and childhood food involvement appear to have some protective effect on food insecurity in young adulthood. Future research should further investigate the effects of nutrition education, nutrition assistance program participation, and involvement in food preparation on food insecurity over the short- and long-term.

This research project aims to evaluate the impact that a British Council Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning project had on the children and parents' stereotypical views and images of the Middle East. This study focuses on a largely monocultural school in rural Lincolnshire and a large, diverse school in the centre of Beirut, Lebanon. It begins by identifying the children and parents' initial perceptions and views of the Middle East. After a series of small-scale projects to widen children's knowledge of the area, pupils and parents' perceptions are collected again, using the same method. These results are then analysed and compared to see if the project can impact on the stereotypical views of the parents and pupils. [This paper was published by Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning in collaboration with the Development Education Research Centre (DERC). The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme is funded by the British Council and UK aid.]

We use remarkable population-level administrative education and birth records from Florida to study the role of Long-Term Orientation on the educational attainment of immigrant students living in the US. Controlling for the quality of schools and individual characteristics, students from countries with long-term oriented attitudes perform better than students from cultures that do not emphasize the importance of delayed gratification. These students perform better in third grade reading and math tests, have larger test score gains over time, have fewer absences and disciplinary incidents, are less likely to repeat grades, and are more likely to graduate from high school in four years. Also, they are more likely to enroll in advanced high school courses, especially in scientific subjects. Parents from long-term oriented cultures are more likely to secure better educational opportunities for their children. A larger fraction of immigrants speaking the same language in the school amplifies the effect of Long-Term Orientation on educational performance. We validate these results using a sample of immigrant students living in 37 different countries.

According to UNESCO, one-third of the world's youths are victims of bullying, which deteriorates academic performance and mental health, and increases suicide ideation and the risk of committing suicide. This paper analyzes a four-month parent-directed intervention designed to foster empathy in middle schoolers in China. Our implementation and evaluation study enrolled 2,246 seventh and eighth graders and their parents, whom we assigned, at the classroom level, to the control or intervention condition randomly. We measured, before and after the intervention, parental investments, children's empathy, and self-reported bullying perpetration and victimization incidents. Our analyses show that the intervention increased investments and empathy and reduced bullying incidents. In addition, we measured costs and found that it costs $12.50 for our intervention to reduce one bullying incident. Our study offers a scalable and low-cost strategy that can inform public policy on bullying prevention in other similar settings.

This paper studies the effect of parental job loss on children's school performance during the Great Recession in Spain, using an original panel dataset for students observed since the beginning of the crisis in a school in the province of Barcelona. By using fixed effects, this paper is more likely to deal with the problem of selection into troubled firms which is prevalent in the literature. Fixed effect estimates show that students experience a negative and significant decrease on average grades of about 13% of a standard deviation after father's job loss. The impact of paternal job loss is not homogeneous across students, but it is largely concentrated among children whose fathers suffer long unemployment spells after job loss and students in already disadvantaged families in terms of the father's education level. These results suggest that paternal job loss is a mechanism through which further inequalities might develop during and after a deep economic crisis. The following are appended: (1) The impact of parental job loss on grades. A simple theoretical framework; and (2) More details on the data.

We investigate if there is a causal link between education and health knowledge using data from the 1984/85 and 1991/92 waves of the UK Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS). Uniquely, the survey asks respondents what they think are the main causes of ten common health conditions, and we compare these answers to those given by medical professionals to form an index of health knowledge. For causal identification we use increases in the UK minimum school leaving age in 1947 (from 14 to 15)and 1972 (from 15 to 16) to provide exogenous variation in education. These reforms predominantly induced adolescents who would have left school to stay for one additionally mandated year. OLS estimates suggest that education significantly increases health knowledge, with a one-year increase in schooling increasing the health knowledge index by 15% of a standard deviation. In contrast, estimates from instrumental-variable models show that increased schooling due to the education reforms did not significantly affect health knowledge. This main result is robust to numerous specification tests and alternative formulations of the health knowledge index. Further research is required to determine whether there is also no causal link between higher levels of education--such as post-school qualifications--and health knowledge. An appendix entitled, "Sensitivity of results to alternative definitions of health knowledge index," is included. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre's Education Programme. The Centre for Economic Performance is financed by the Economic and Social Research Council.]

Triangulation -- a combined use of different assessment methods or sources to evaluate psychological constructs -- is still a rarely used assessment approach in spite of its potential in overcoming inherent constraints of individual assessment methods. This paper uses field test data from a new OECD Study on Social and Emotional Skills to examine the triangulated assessment of 19 social and emotional skills of 10- and 15-year-old students across 11 cities and countries. This study assesses students' social and emotional skills combining three sources of information: students' self-reports and reports by parents and teachers. We examine convergent and divergent validities of the assessment scales and the analytical value of combining information from multiple informants. Findings show that students', parents' and teachers' reports on students' skills overlap to a substantial degree. In addition, a strong 'common rater' effect is identified for all three informants and seems to be reduced when we use the triangulation approach. Finally, triangulation provides skill estimates with stronger relations to various life outcomes compared with individual student, parent or teacher reports.

Children who exhibit disruptive behavior often do so across multiple settings (e.g., home and school) and are vulnerable to many negative outcomes, including low achievement scores and academic grades, high school dropout, and increased school suspensions. Family-school partnership interventions, which are grounded in ecological theory, are highly correlated with many positive outcomes for students, families, and teachers. Experimental studies with families as collaborators have been found to improve students' behavioral functioning and decrease disruptive behaviors. There is a lack of empirical research on family-school connections in rural settings, hindering the ability to understand the impact of family-school partnerships on rural schools, families, and students. Rural parents interact with their children and teachers regarding school less often than parents in other geographic areas. Conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) may address barriers and create meaningful partnerships between rural parents and teachers. CBC is a structured indirect form of support in which teachers and parents work together to promote adaptive behaviors and decrease disruptive behaviors. The following questions were researched for this report: (1) What are the preliminary effects of CBC in rural communities on behavioral and social-emotional outcomes of students with or at risk of developing behavioral disorders?; and (2) What are the preliminary effects of CBC in rural communities on parent and teacher practices, relationships, engagement, and beliefs about family-school partnerships? Ninety kindergarten through 3rd grade students and their parents (n = 90) and teachers (n = 54) from 20 schools in Midwestern rural areas participated in this research. Participating students were identified by teachers as having disruptive behavior concerns. Within each CBC-assigned classroom, a consultant met with a teacher and parents of 1 to 3 students for CBC meetings via a 4-stage process operationalized by semi-structured conjoint interviews. Results suggest promising effects of CBC for teachers, parents, and students in rural settings. [The paper was presented originally by the authors at the 2013 annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists.]

This paper discusses the challenges college students with children face, as well as the steps colleges, universities, and the surrounding communities must take to help students succeed in their work as both students and parents. The role of parenthood in postsecondary settings needs greater focus from the higher education reform community. Unless the care-giving responsibilities of low-income adults are actively acknowledged and addressed, efforts to improve postsecondary access and completion for low-income adults--be they through online learning, improved on-ramps, developmental education, institutional accountability, financial aid, or curriculum reform--are likely to fall short of their full potential for change. Some colleges have recognized the needs of student parents by providing them with additional resources, like campus child care centers, benefits access services, housing opportunities, referral programs and scholarships. These promising efforts should be replicated and expanded, and federal funding for programs such as the U.S. Department of Education's Child Care Means Parents In School Program, and the Pregnancy Assistance Fund, should be strengthened and expanded. In addition, more states should use the flexibility within Perkins Workforce Development Grants to expand supports for students who are raising children while they seek to expand their credentials.

Given the compounding nature of early reading problems, early intervention is critical for preschoolers at risk for reading difficulties. When parents are meaningfully engaged in children's learning, significant gains in social-emotional, behavioral, language, and cognitive skills result. As defined in this paper, parent engagement entails parental practices that support early language and literacy skills. Integrated, systemic interventions across home and school are needed to promote early literacy development. Response to Intervention (RtI) models demonstrate improved reading-related outcomes for elementary children; however, few tiered early literacy preschool models have been studied. Furthermore, tiered models that join families and schools in an integrated, comprehensive approach are lacking. Descriptive and illustrative data from an RtI model focused on early literacy are presented to assess the potential added contribution of innovative tiered family engagement strategies. Data derived from multiple sources suggest that the family engagement approach developed for this RtI model holds promise for promoting children's language and literacy skills and is feasible to implement in preschool settings. Lessons learned through the development process revealed: (1) The family engagement strategies were more feasible and effective for teachers to implement when applied using an intentional and individualized approach; and (2) When focused on the approach to engaging families, rather than simply providing activities, families appeared to be more engaged and children's scores improved. [This paper was presented originally by the authors at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.]

This working paper is one in a series of projects initiated by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to improve knowledge for child care researchers and policy makers about parental child care decision making. In this paper, the authors identify three distinct conceptual frameworks for understanding child care decisions--a rational consumer choice framework, a heuristics and biases framework, and a social network framework--and review the major assumptions, contributions, and possible limitations of each of these frameworks. They then discuss an integrated conceptual model, the accommodation model that draws from each of these frameworks. The first three frameworks come primarily from the fields of economics, psychology, and sociology, respectively. It is the authors' sense that most research about child care decision making has been informed by the theories, assumptions, and empirical methods of one or more of these frameworks, either explicitly or implicitly, and they provide some examples and elaborate the basic tenets of each framework. The integrative accommodation model was first presented by Marcia Meyers and Lucy Jordan (2006). They develop and elaborate this model more fully here with explicit attention to its relation to the rational consumer choice framework, the heuristics and biases framework, and the social network frameworks. These frameworks are presented as complementary, rather than mutually exclusive. For a process as complex as parental child care decisions, each can provide a different and useful lens through which to understand unique aspects of the factors, processes and outcomes of parental child care decisions. When considered together, they believe they may inform one another and the development of more integrative models, such as the accommodation model presented here. It is the authors' hope that researchers working primarily within one of the conceptual frameworks discussed here will benefit from learning about other frameworks. In some cases, this may simply suggest additional or new variables to consider when specifying a particular model, while still working from the same conceptual framework. In other cases, it may result in integrative approaches that address multiple dimensions of the decision making process--dimensions that may not be as obvious when working within a single framework. In the concluding section the authors discuss some of the issues and the implications for future research. A goal of this paper is to advance knowledge that can inform public policy efforts. Given that the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) has an explicit goal of supporting parental choice for child care, it is critical that they expand and deepen everyone's knowledge about the processes through which parents make decisions and the consequences for the choices they make (Zaslow, Halle, Guzman, Lavelle, Keith, Berry, & Dent, 2006). The different perspectives offered by each of the three frameworks and the integrative accommodation model may help policy makers identify the policy and program levers that can prove important at different stages of the decision making process. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

Interactions and experiences within home and school systems, uniquely and together, form the foundation for developmental trajectories throughout students' educational careers. As a lifelong resource, families represent the first essential system and source of support for the learning and development of children and adolescents. When parents are involved in their children's learning, children experience increased achievement and academic performance, stronger self-regulatory skills, fewer discipline problems, better study habits, more positive attitudes toward school, improved homework habits and work orientation, and higher educational aspirations. Two distinct approaches to family intervention can be found in the school-based literature: family/parent involvement and family-school partnership. Despite general support, research inconsistencies are evident. Variability in findings could be due to the imprecision with which the construct has been investigated. Studies have often failed to operationalize the variable of interest, or failed to differentiate between approaches or activities. Previous meta-analyses have failed to differentiate between general parent involvement models (that focus on activities parents do) and family-school partnership models (that focus on relationships between family members and school personnel). There is a need to (a) differentiate between interventions that are relational in nature and strive to strengthen family-school partnerships, versus those that are structural in nature and attempt to promote parent involvement activities; and (b) identify the primary components that typify these approaches. The present review is a preliminary summary of studies that investigates the benefits of two clearly distinct approaches--i.e., interventions that are relational in nature and strive to strengthen family-school partnerships and those that are structural in nature and attempt to promote parent involvement activities. Coding scheme is appended. (Contains 5 figures and 3 tables.) [This paper was presented originally by the authors at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.]

Child behavior problems are a concern for parents and teachers alike and are associated with later academic and behavioral difficulties. Parents' participation in their children's schooling has been shown to help reduce problem behaviors over time. Research indicates that parents are more likely to participate in their children's schooling when parents have high quality relationships with teachers. One intervention aimed at improving children's behavior through enhancing both parents' participation in school and their relationships with teachers is Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC; Sheridan & Kratochwill, 2008). CBC is a strength-based, structured, indirect model of service delivery wherein parents and teachers collaboratively participate in a problem-solving process to promote positive and consistent behavioral outcomes for children. Although it is clear that CBC improves the quality of parent-teacher relationships, the manner in which such relationships shape both "why" and "when" parents participate in children's schooling remains unexplored. The primary goal of this research was to investigate how the quality of parent-teacher relationships may exert an influence on the effect of CBC on parents' participation in problem solving by examining two possible pathways: mediation and moderation. The results of this study revealed that the quality of parent-teacher relationships acted both as a mediator and a moderator of the effects of CBC on parents' participation in problem solving. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.) [This paper was presented originally by the authors at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.]

Families in rural communities are often poorly connected to schools due to challenges associated with geographic isolation, poverty, inexperienced staff, inadequate resources, scheduling challenges, and low parental education. This creates problems with the access, availability, and acceptability of services. Teachers in rural schools often have to extend their responsibilities to meet student's behavioral needs, and report feeling ill-equipped to provide focused services to students with learning and behavior concerns. Parents are essential partners for meeting the needs of students in rural schools; cross-system interventions in rural communities may be particularly beneficial for children, parents, and teachers. "Conjoint behavioral consultation" (CBC; Sheridan & Kratochwill, 2008) may address barriers and create meaningful partnerships between rural parents and teachers. In CBC: (1) Parents and teachers serve as joint consultees; (2) Problems are identified, defined, analyzed, and treated through mutual and collaborative parent-teacher interactions with the assistance of a consultant; and (3) Partnerships are formed, creating opportunities for families and schools to work together around a common interest and build upon strengths of family members and school personnel. The efficacy of CBC in settings where specialized consultation services are sparse (i.e., rural schools), and where students, families and schools are characteristically distinctive, has not been explored. This study investigates the preliminary effects of CBC on decreasing problematic behaviors for rural students at home and school. It also explores unique aspects of individual case studies and discerns elements of the rural experience that may influence CBC implementation and uptake. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.) [This paper was presented originally by the authors at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.]

Meaningful interactions between families and schools benefit multiple facets of children's functioning including their academic, social, and behavioral adjustment. Positive relationships between parents and teachers predict children's enhanced social-emotional functioning and academic adjustment across time. Studies of parent-teacher relationships often focus on the association of child outcomes with separate parent or teacher reports of their relationship quality. Little attention has focused on the congruence of perceptions within parent-teacher dyads. It may be the case that when parents and teachers view their relationship in a similar positive light, better connections or partnerships across the home and school environments result, thereby enhancing children's functioning. Conversely, when parents and teachers hold discrepant views about their relationship, or both view it negatively, they may be less likely to communicate and share goals for children; this disconnect may impede children's functioning. This study examined the degree to which congruity and incongruity in parent and teacher views of their relationship are related to children's academic, social, and behavioral functioning. The study found that teachers' ratings of children's social-emotional functioning, including social skills and behavior, are associated with congruence in parent and teacher views of their relationship. It is possible that teachers' versus parents' perspectives on children's skills are more heavily influenced by the way they regard parent-teacher relationships. Congruence in parents' and teachers' views of their relationship was not related to academic functioning in children. (Contains 2 tables.) [This paper was presented originally by the authors at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.]

Almost one in four (3.9 million) students who are enrolled in postsecondary education programs in the United States are also raising a dependent child (Miller, Gault, and Thorman, 2011). These parents are preparing themselves to compete in an American economy in which high skill levels are required to earn a wage sufficient to support a family (Rakesh, 2012). It is important that college campuses are prepared to recognize and support student parents on their path to educational success. Many postsecondary leaders are looking for promising strategies that match the needs and resources of their institutions and students. This brief is a product of the Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI) at the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) which provides a framework for thinking about the range of supports student parents typically need and example programs. The brief draws from information and lessons learned that have been collected by IWPR from initiatives supporting student parents at two- and four-year colleges and universities across the country. SPSI resources may be used to inform the decisions of leaders on campuses, in communities, and among policymakers to promote better success rates and stronger families for student parents in postsecondary education. The following are appended: (1) Analysis of Student Parent Program Survey; and (2) Information on the Examples Included in the Toolkit.

Student parents face many challenges to accessing, persisting, and completing postsecondary education. While some of these challenges are unique to student parents--such as finding quality child care during class and work hours and juggling studying and academic assignments with parenting duties--others are typical of low-income and underserved populations more generally, who face financial difficulties and the need to work to cover college expenses. These factors influence student parents' decisions about the type of institution they attend, as well as whether they attend full- or part-time. College choice and enrollment status may also affect the persistence and graduation rates of student parents, and reduce their ability to receive federal, state, and institutional financial aid. The federal government, in particular, has a range of financial aid resources to offer students, though the sheer number of options in addition to the complexity in eligibility and delivery of awards may make it difficult for student parents to understand and take advantage of the options available to them. This brief aims to explain the circumstances of student parents--particularly vis-á-vis the financial aid system--as well as detail major federal programs that could impact student parents' college-going experience. Better communication, outreach and design of these programs, where needed, could have a substantial impact on college access, institutional choice, and persistence for student parents. Given that this population makes up nearly a quarter of all students, improving these programs could make a considerable dent in achieving national college attainment goals as well.

Parental participation and cooperation in children's educational experiences is positively related to important student outcomes. It is becoming increasingly evident that context is a significant factor in understanding academic achievement, and the setting in which a child, family, and school is situated is among the salient contexts influencing performance. Although the family-school partnership research literature has increased over recent decades, it has been conducted primarily in urban and suburban settings. The goals of this paper are to (a) review the empirical literature on family involvement and family-school partnerships in rural schools, (b) provide a synthesis of the state of the science, and (c) point to a research agenda in this area. Eighteen studies were identified that met the criteria for this review. A critique of the research methods and analytical approaches is provided, along with a call for more research on the topic of family-school partnerships in rural settings, including rigorous and systematic studies pertaining to the effects of family-school involvement and partnerships in rural schools. (Contains 1 table and 1 footnote.)

Objectives: We aim to understand why blacks are significantly less likely than whites to perpetuate their middle class status across generations. To do so, we focus on the potentially different associations between parental job loss and youth's educational attainment in black and white middle class families. Methods: We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), following those children "born" into the survey between 1968 and 1979 and followed through age 21. We conduct multivariate regression analyses to test the association between parental job loss during childhood and youth's educational attainment by age 21. Results: We find that parental job loss is associated with a lesser likelihood of obtaining any post-secondary education for all offspring, but that the association for blacks is almost three times as strong. A substantial share of the differential impact of job loss on black and white middle class youth is explained by race differences in household wealth, long-run measures of family income, and, especially, parental experience of long-term unemployment. Conclusions: These findings highlight the fragile economic foundation of the black middle-class and suggest that intergenerational persistence of class status in this population may be highly dependent on the avoidance of common economic shocks. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures and 11 footnotes.) [Additional funding for this paper was provided by a William T. Grant Foundation Faculty Scholars Award.]

Rates of food insecurity in households with children have significantly increased over the past decade. The majority of children, including those at risk for food insecurity, participate in some form of non-parental child care during the preschool years. To evaluate the relationship between the two phenomenon, this study investigates the effects of child care arrangements on food insecurity in households with children. To address the selection bias problem that arises from the fact that enrollment in different types of child care is not a random process, this study uses propensity scores techniques. The authors compare outcomes across five child care arrangement patterns: no non-parental care (i.e., exclusive parent care), relative care, non-relative care, center care, and Head Start. Our results demonstrate that for low income preschoolers, compared to no non-parental care, attending a child care center reduces the probability of both food insecurity and very low food security, relative care reduces the probability of food insecurity, and non-relative care increases the probability of very low food security.

This paper examines school policies relating to alcohol and illicit drug use, and their associations with the prevalence of alcohol and marijuana use among students. Both "punitive" and "supportive" policies are examined. Other studies examining punitive disciplinary measures--such as close monitoring of student behavior, having various security measures, and expulsion or suspension from school--as a means of ensuring student compliance to school policies have suggested that these measures do little to reduce drug and alcohol use among students. Supportive measures, however, such as the availability of services and the presence of caregivers, may reduce the prevalence of substance use among students. Analyses use data from nationally representative samples of 8th-grade students (29,822 in 246 schools), 10th-grade students (22,964 in 212 schools), and 12th-grade students (23,594 in 226 schools) who participated in annual surveys conducted by the Monitoring the Future project from 1998 to 2001. Analyses also use data from surveys of principals of the same schools collected under the Youth, Education, and Society study, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For each of the three grades, descriptive statistics on the level of monitoring, number of security measures, severity of punitive actions taken for violation of school policies, and number of care providers and services are presented for schools with different demographic characteristics. Using multilevel logistic regression, we found that monitoring, number of security measures, and severity of consequences for violation of school policies showed little systematic association with actual substance use in general or substance use at school. Additionally, contrary to our hypothesis, schools that adopted a variety of supportive measures, such as providing more services and care providers, did not, in general, have lower average substance use than schools providing fewer such services. The implications of the for school policies and practices are discussed. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.)

This paper explores some of the psychological and other issues associated with HIV infection in children. Although the majority of studies are in the West, a growing core of information is emerging from other centres. This paper attempts to summarise the complexity of who the children are, examine emerging orphan and vulnerability issues, explore HIV/AIDS treatment interventions and how they affect the emerging scenario in terms of child and parent infection, and then focus on the widespread psychological effects of HIV/AIDS on the young child. (Contains 4 tables.)

The literature addressing how family and community involvement impacts a culture of college and career readiness suggests there is a positive association for certain types of involvement. Providing support and encouragement, as well as assisting with planning, increases the probability of attending and graduating from college. Key points include: (1) Make efforts to include families in postsecondary planning; (2) Provide information to support postsecondary planning throughout a student's education; (3) Provide information to support postsecondary planning throughout a student's education; and (4) Address linguistic and cultural barriers, parental time issues, and other factors across populations that are traditionally underrepresented in institutions of higher education. Appended are: (1) Suggested Strategies for Family and Community Involvement; and (2) Profiles of Reported Successful School, District, or State Programs. A list of references and additional resources is provided.

"Policy Matters" is an initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Policy. The "Policy Matters" project is designed to develop and make available coherent, comprehensive information regarding the strength and adequacy of state policies affecting children, families, and communities. The project seeks to establish consensus among policy experts and state leaders regarding the mix of policies believed to offer the best opportunity for improving child and family well-being. A series of policy briefs, policy papers, guides for self-assessment, and 50-state comparative reports is envisioned. The project focuses on six core results: school readiness, educational success, family economic success, healthy families, youth development, and strong family relationships. Together, these six core results and the policies designed to achieve them make up a state-level family-strengthening policy agenda. This paper puts forth an approach to setting benchmarks for a state policy agenda to encourage stronger family relationships. Given current policy concerns for the well-being of families and the hardships some families are experiencing, an examination of state policy efforts and trends to strengthen families is timely. The current paper offers a beginning statement on the importance of solid, evidence-informed recommendations to help states encourage the development of stronger family bonds and resilience in the face of economic and social pressures. Section I of the paper provides a brief introduction to some current family policy issues and questions in the U.S. Section II reviews data and research on the impact of family structure, economic conditions, and the quality of familial relationships on the well-being of family members. This section also includes a brief look at the growing diversity of American families sometimes overlooked in U.S. family policy debates. Section III suggests a state-level policy framework focusing on the formation, maintenance, stability and safety of families. Section IV recommends a series of policies with potential for improving child and family relationships. This section details the policy options and preliminary benchmarks that research and practice evidence suggest can promote successful family formation and maintenance outcomes. While other policy remedies are possible, and are discussed in other "Policy Matters" volumes, this paper attempts to limit its focus to those policies that promote the relational success of families and to those policies with greater research and practice evidence in support of their effectiveness. Over time, the recommendations and benchmarks will be improved as more research and practice evidence is available. Thus, this paper presents a preliminary set of benchmarks. This paper is an invitation for further deliberation and action regarding policies leading to stronger family relationships. Moving forward, the project aims to expand this initial statement to a national bi-partisan consensus on policy directions for those interested in promoting positive family outcomes. Policy Matters Project Overview is appended. (Contains 9 tables, 4 figures and 156 endnotes.) [For companion brief, "Encouraging Strong Family Relationships. State Policies That Work. Brief Number 6," see ED536813.]

We study the links between family configuration and formation on the one hand and adult literacy skills on the other by analysing data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), a survey of 250,000 people aged 16 to 65 conducted by the OECD in 33 countries and economies. Literacy proficiency has an effect on many aspects of the formation and development of families, such as age of parents at birth of first child, or age of partners at cohabitation, even when educational attainment and age are taken into account. Moreover, having children and living with a partner have consequences for adults' job opportunities and participation in the labour market, which can be particularly negative for the women with the highest literacy proficiency.

This paper is the third in a series that focuses on the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. It reports on a study of what parents know and think about campus safety issues and the Clery Act. During a college's summer orientation program, parents were selected at random from those who passed the checkout table at the end of the program. Responses of 435 parents who also completed a brief questionnaire show that parents' knowledge of the Clery Act and their use of the information contained in the federally mandated report is low. Parent response to crime awareness strategies and administrators who shared this information with them varied by parent educational status and experience with children in college. (SLD)

Against the backdrop of evolving welfare policies in California following the approval of federal welfare reforms in 1996, the Growing Up in Poverty Project is examining how single mothers and their children fare as they move from cash aid to jobs, the types and quality of child care arrangements selected, and if mothers' access to child care subsidies bolsters their employability. This paper reports on wave 1 data, collected in 1998 from the 410 participating mothers residing in San Francisco or Santa Clara county. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and observations of each child's child care or preschool setting. Comparative quality data were obtained from 176 centers and family child care homes in the Bay Area and in Connecticut during 1997. Findings indicate that child care centers and preschools were of moderate to high quality. The array of child activities and educational content of home-based settings was not impressive. Areas of quality weakness include the provision of ample language and reading materials, and time to read and exercise communication skills with young children. Mothers reported that kith and kin were more respectful of their own parenting practices than were child care centers or preschools and were more flexible in terms of when the caregiver was available. They also believed that the child received more individual attention, compared to those using centers. Women who selected child care centers or preschools often received subsidies to cover the cost. Only a small fraction of women selecting home-based arrangements took advantage of available subsidies. Several risk factors were associated with this pattern: (1) having an infant or young toddler rather than a child over age 3; (2) coming from a Latino or Vietnamese-American community; (3) having spent less time on welfare; and (4) living in a neighborhood with fewer center-based enrollment slots. Appended are descriptive statistics for quality data for both counties. (Author/KB)

As part of the "Assessing the New Federalism" project monitoring and assessing the devolution of social programs from the federal to the state and local levels, this report examines the child care providers upon whom the child care subsidy system depends. The report relies on data collected from subsidy agency administrators, key child care experts, child care caseworkers, parents, and providers in 17 sites across 12 states. The report focuses on subsidy policies and practices that can shape the experiences of providers serving subsidized children, including how much providers are paid and how providers experience the subsidy system. The report's findings suggest that a number of policies and practices can affect how much child care providers receive and the ease of their interactions with the subsidy system. In some cases, policies and practices appeared to undercut the amount providers received or made it more difficult for providers to interact with the subsidy system. Respondents suggested that these issues may also ultimately affect the willingness and ability of providers to participate in the subsidy system, thereby affecting whether children receiving subsidies have equal access to the range of providers available to nonsubsidized children. These policies and practices may have implications for the financial stability of providers and the quality of care they provide. Although a range of more supportive practices was also identified, the report notes that implementing these strategies is challenging within the current context of inadequate funding for children. The report's three appendices describe the study methodology, list the provider focus group participants, and compare the subsidies received by a hypothetical provider under various scenarios. (Contains 68 notes and 24 references.) (KB)

As part of the "Assessing the New Federalism" project monitoring and assessing the devolution of social programs from the federal to the state and local levels, this study explored how much help employed families get with child care expenses and the types of help they receive. The analysis is based on data from the 1997 and 1999 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), a nationally representative survey focused on families with children. Among the key findings are that about 30 percent of all employed families with children under age 13 receive some type of non-tax child care help, with two sources of help predominating: free care from a relative and free or subsidized care from a government agency or private organization. Low-income families were more likely to receive child care help than were higher-income families, especially families below the poverty level and single-parent families. Between 1997 and 1999, the percentage of low-income families with no child care expenses increased because of relative help. Approximately 20 percent of all employed families with children under 13 paid no child care expenses because of help received. At current levels of child care help, low-income families that pay for child care pay an average of 14 percent of earnings for care and poor families pay an average of 18 percent of earnings, compared to 7 percent for higher-earnings families. (Two appendices detail state-level results and provide details about methods used to identify and categorize types of child care. Contains 27 notes and 14 references.) (KB)

One of the most contentious policy areas in the United States today is the expansion of school choice. Although many dimensions of parental choice behavior have been analyzed, perhaps the most enduring questions center on the aspects of schools parents prefer and how these preferences will affect the socioeconomic and racial composition of schools. Using Internet-based methodological tools, parental preferences (revealed through information-search patterns) were studied and compared to the standard findings in the literature, which are based largely on telephone interviews. Based on this evidence, it is suggested that unfettered choice may lead to undesirable outcomes in the distribution of students, and it may also lead to reduced pressure on schools to improve academic performance. Stratification may increase if parents with higher levels of education are more likely to exercise choice than less-educated parents and more likely to engage in search activity to gather information about their options. The task facing advocates of choice is to design a system that can produce a socially acceptable tradeoff between a more efficient school system and one that mixes together children of different races and classes. (Contains 40 references, 2 tables, and 3 figures.) (RT)

This report examines what factors, besides funding and eligibility, affect whether eligible low-income parents who know they can get a child care subsidy actually use one. Data come from subsidy agency administrators, child care experts and caseworkers, parents, and providers at 17 sites in 12 states in 1999 as part of a case study project. This report examines subsidy policies and practices that may affect the utilization patterns of eligible parents who want to apply for, or who already receive, subsidies. Results indicate that there are many subsidy policies and practices that make it difficult for low income eligible parents to access and retain the child care assistance they need in order to work. Eight chapters examine: (1) "How Parents Experience the Subsidy System: Overarching Administrative and Structural Factors"; (2) "Initial Access to the Child Care Subsidy System"; (3) "Retaining Assistance during the Recertification Process"; (4) "Retaining Child Care Assistance after Leaving Welfare"; (5) "Retaining Assistance through Changes in Employment Circumstances"; (6) "Retaining Subsidies during Changes in Child Care Providers"; (7) "The End of the Process: Termination from the Subsidy Program"; and (8) "Conclusions." Study data are appended. (Contains 33 references.) (SM)

Noting that North Carolina is a leader in the integration of family support into services for families with young children, this brochure provides practical information and guidelines for family supportive early care and education programs, early intervention, parenting programs, and health services for families with young children. The brochure notes that family support is a change strategy cutting across all social strata, family types, and professional disciplines. The brochure defines family support and details the mandate for such support in federal and state legislation and regulations for many child and family service programs. The benefits of family involvement are delineated for families; for providers, staff, and trainers; and for communities, programs or agencies, policymakers, and government bodies. Guidelines for supportive early childhood care and education include parents participating in decisions about their child's care and education, and programs linking families with a range of services. Guidelines for family supportive early intervention include providing a formal orientation for families and giving parents needed information for their meaningful involvement. Guidelines for supportive parenting education programs include enhancing the cultural values of parents and families, and affirming and building on parents' strengths and knowledge. Guidelines for supportive health services include using a two-generation approach and connecting parents to other parents. The brochure also notes supportive program evaluation practices, including the inclusion of program participant representatives on the evaluation team and working explicitly to overcome possible barriers. A list of organizations that have helped develop family support practice information and assessment procedures completes the brochure. (KB)

Noting that parents often receive little support during their child's first weeks and months, this paper discusses how voluntary home visiting for families with young children can help provide parents of all educational, economic, and cultural backgrounds with the information, advice, and support they need in their new role. The paper notes the importance of the early years for brain development, early relationships with parents and other caregivers, and development of confidence. The report presents evidence that new parents lack confidence about caring for their infant and seek support and guidance. The role of the home visitor is discussed, including ways in which home visitors build on the natural capacities and interests of a family and how they break the isolation often felt by new parents. Evidence from longitudinal studies is presented regarding the effectiveness of home visiting related to healthy child development, parent-child bonding, parental self-sufficiency, and its cost-effectiveness relative to intervention and treatment services for child abuse. Characteristics of successful home visitor programs are outlined: (1) voluntary; (2) relationship-based; (3) focused on the parent-child relationship; (4) culturally responsive and respectful; and (5) tailored to fit each family's situation and strengths. Myths about home visiting related to parents' rights, privacy, the nature of parenting, and dependency on government programs are also addressed. The report concludes by asserting that creating networks of home visiting programs nationwide can ensure that families with young children have the support and tools they need to be the best parents they can be. (KB)

To understand the impact of high poverty neighborhoods on families, researchers collected data from participants at the Boston site of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Moving To Opportunity (MTO) program, which randomly assigned housing vouchers to applicants living in high poverty public housing projects. This allowed families to move to private apartments, typically in lower poverty neighborhoods. The qualitative fieldwork included observation of Boston's MTO and participant interviews. This work caused researchers to refocus their quantitative data collection on substantially different outcomes, primarily related to safety and health. In subsequent quantitative work, researchers found the largest program effects in the domains suggested by qualitative interviews. The qualitative work led researchers to develop an overall conceptual framework for considering the impacts of impoverished neighborhoods on families and how moves to lower poverty neighborhoods might affect them. They observed that fear of random violence caused parents in inner city neighborhoods to focus significant daily effort on keeping their children safe. Later quantitative research confirmed that the intensity of parental monitoring was reduced among families offered housing vouchers. By listening to MTO families, researchers learned lessons with important implications for housing policy. (Contains 18 references.) (SM)

Relations among academic achievement, school bonding, school misbehavior, and cigarette use from eighth to twelfth grade were examined in two national and panel samples of youth from the Monitoring the Future project (N=3,056). A series of competing conceptual models developed a priori was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings suggest that during middle adolescence the predominant direction of influence is from school experiences to cigarette use. School misbehavior and low academic achievement contribute to increased cigarette use over time both directly and indirectly. Two-group SEM analyses involving two cohorts--gender and ethnicity--revealed that the findings are robust. In addition, comparisons between high school dropouts and non-dropouts and between eighth-grade cigarette use initiators and nonusers revealed few differences in direction or magnitude of effects. Results suggest that prevention programs that attempt to reduce school misbehavior and academic failure, as well as to help students who misbehave and have difficulty in school constructively avoid negative school and health related outcomes, are likely to be effective in reducing adolescent cigarette use. (Contains 5 tables, 2 figures, and 78 references.) (Author/MKA)