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The Homeownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere VI programme (HOPE VI) model created a new approach to redeveloping public housing in the US, paving the way for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI). Unlike traditional public housing redevelopment, CNI aims to revitalise entire ecosystems to create sustainable, thriving communities by focusing on housing, people, neighbourhoods and participatory community planning. This study used qualitative methods to explore the longitudinal perspectives of 12 stakeholders involved in a large CNI-funded public housing redevelopment project in Los Angeles, California. Our grounded theory analysis identified four key themes: (1) persistent community ghosts; (2) growing regeneration rooted in optimism and hope for the future; (3) displacement concerns; and (4) the emergence of a mixed-income dichotomy. These findings underscore the importance of continued community involvement in redevelopment efforts, especially in communities that bear complex historical and social challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In evaluating the role of kindergarten entry age, previous researchers have not examined the entry-age effects for English language learners (ELL). Additionally, little work has assessed the role of entry age on both achievement and social-emotional outcomes. This study is the first to do both simultaneously. The authors used data from a longitudinal study that followed a national sample of U.S. students from kindergarten through Grade 5. Relying on variation in children's birth dates and in states' kindergarten entrance age cutoffs, the authors estimated how differences in the age at which children enroll in kindergarten are related to their achievement and social-emotional outcomes. Our results show that enrolling in kindergarten as an older entrant is associated with significantly higher achievement and social-behavioral outcomes during the early elementary school years for ELL students, but that these effects largely disappear by the end of elementary school. Policy implications are addressed.

Prior research evaluating school entry age effects has largely overlooked the effects on social-behavioral skills despite the growing recognition of returns to such skills. This study is the first to examine the effects of kindergarten entry age on children's social-behavioral outcomes using 9 years of panel data on a national sample of U.S. children. We leverage exogenous variation in birth dates and kindergarten entrance age policies to estimate instrumental variables models. Our results show that entering kindergarten a year later is associated with significantly better social-behavioral outcomes during elementary school. However, these effects largely disappear by the end of middle school. Larger gains over time among younger entrants support the notion that the estimated effects are age-at-test effects.

Despite limited empirical evidence, there is growing concern that junk food availability in schools has contributed to the childhood obesity epidemic. In this paper, we estimate the effects of junk food availability on body mass index (BMI), obesity, and related outcomes among a national sample of fifth graders. Unlike previous studies, we address the endogeneity of the school food environment by controlling for children's BMI at school entry and estimating instrumental variables regressions that leverage variation in the school's grade span. Our main finding is that junk food availability does not significantly increase BMI or obesity among this fifth-grade cohort despite the increased likelihood of in-school junk food purchases. The results are robust to alternate measures of junk food availability including school administrator reports of sales during school hours, school administrator reports of competitive food outlets, and children's reports of junk food availability. Moreover, the absence of any effects on overall food consumption and physical activity further support the null findings for BMI and obesity. (Contains 33 footnotes and 16 tables.)

We use panel data from the kindergarten and 1st grade waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class to investigate whether increases in schooling inputs in the form of smaller classes "crowd out" parental inputs. We estimate child fixed-effect and fixed-effect-instrumental-variable models to identify the causal effects of class size on three types of parental involvement--parent-child interactions, parent-school interaction, and parent-financed activities for children. Our results suggest that increases in class size are associated with a decrease in parent-child interaction, no change in parent-school interaction, but an increase in parent-financed activities. The magnitude of these effects is between 3% and 7% of a standard deviation. Controlling for parental involvement in test score regressions does not change the achievement effects of class size, suggesting that the benefits of class size reduction are unlikely to be neutralized by adjustments in parental inputs, at least during the first 2 years in school. (Contains 4 tables.)

The rising trend in the minimum entrance age for kindergarten in the US has been motivated by findings from cross-sectional studies that older entrants have more favorable school outcomes compared to younger entrants. However, these studies fail to account for endogeneity in entrance age resulting from parental choice, leading to biased estimates of the entrance age effect. This paper uses exogenous variation in birth dates and kindergarten entrance age policies to generate instrumental variable estimates of the effect of delaying kindergarten entrance on children's academic achievement. Both initial level differences and subsequent growth in test scores are examined. I find that entering kindergarten a year older significantly boosts test scores at kindergarten entry. More importantly, entering older implies a steeper test score trajectory during the first 2 years in school. Results also suggest that the benefits from delaying kindergarten entrance tend to be significantly larger for at-risk children.

The past two decades have seen a rising trend in the minimum entrance age for kindergarten in the U.S. A little-noticed, but potentially large, consequence of raising the minimum entrance age is that it imposes additional childcare costs for families whose children are forced to stay out of school for an additional year. This paper develops a model for parents' kindergarten entrance age decisions and examines the relationship between socio-economic factors and parents' desired entrance age for their child using a nationally representative dataset on kindergartners in the U.S. The estimates from this model are used to simulate the impact of alternate changes in kindergarten entrance age policies on the number and characteristics of children affected by the policy change, and to estimate the additional childcare cost burden from the policy change.

Changes in food choice often accompany globalization and economic growth. These changes have not been well documented in rural settings and among young people. To advance research on food choice, we demonstrate adolescents' selection of local vs.non-local foods in a rural area of India where globalization is just reaching. A representative sample of 237 school-going adolescents in a village in Southern India completed a survey in 2019 to understand how adolescents decide among foods traditional to the area and foods arriving from other parts of the country and the world. Adolescents most frequently consumed local foods but also occasionally consumed non-local items. In hypothetical scenarios, 81% of the adolescents reported being most interested in substituting local foods with non-local foods if they were to have more money. Among the few who currently consumed non-local snacks and drinks, very few would be willing to replace them with local alternatives, particularly if they were to have more money (snacks: 10% and drinks: 5% respectively). Overall, adolescents were most interested in switching to non-local items when considering fruits, vegetables and snacks. As India faces the dual burden of undernutrition and overnutrition, understanding the changing food environment may help inform efforts to improve nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES. The objectives of this study were to examine the impact of postpartum hospital-stay legislation on newborns' length of stay, neonatal readmissions, and 1-year mortality in California, and whether this legislation had differential impacts by demographics and complications during delivery or pregnancy. METHODOLOGY. This study used linked birth certificates, death certificates and hospital discharge records for all full-term, normal birth weight, and singleton-birth newborns during 1991-2000 in California (n = 662 753). Interrupted time-series analyses were used to examine changes in newborns' length of stay and outcomes after 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years since the passage of postpartum laws. Multivariate linear and logistic regressions were estimated separately by maternal characteristics (race, education, age, and partity), delivery type, and complications during pregnancy or delivery. RESULTS. Length of stay increased by 9.5, 12, and 14 hours in years 1, 2, and 3, respectively, after the passage of the law. Increases were larger for newborns of white mothers, more educated mothers, mothers >35 years of age, primaparous mothers, cesarean deliveries, and Medicaid recipients, but there were no differences by pregnancy or delivery complications. The odds of neonatal readmission declined by 9.3%, 11.8%, and 19.7% in years 1, 2 and 3 after the law, respectively. The odds of infection-related readmissions declined by 21.5% and 30.3% in years 2 and 3, respectively. The odds of jaundice-related readmissions increased by 7% in year 1. There was no significant change in either the odds of readmission due to respiratory problems or the odds of 1-year mortality in the postlaw years. Demographic differences in the impact of the law on readmissions and mortality could not be detected because of lack of statistical power. CONCLUSIONS. Postpartum length of stay legislation was associated with increased length of stay among all births in California, with significant variation in the law's impact across demographic groups. After the law's passage, there was a significant decline in neonatal readmissions but not in 1-year mortality. www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.20OS-3044 doi:10.1542/peds.2005-3044 Key Words length of stay, legislation, newborn, readmission rates, mortality rates Abbreviations LOS--length of stay HMO--health maintenance organization OSHPD--Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development SIDS--sudden infant death syndrome CHM--congenital heart malformation, POSTPARTUM HOSPITAL LENGTH of stay (LOS) of newborns in the United States declined steadily from 1970 until the mid-1990s. (1,2) The average LOS for vaginal deliveries in 1970 was 3.9 [...]

Objectives. We examined the effect of physical education instruction time on body mass index (BMI) change in elementary school. Methods. We examined data from a national sample of 9751 kindergartners in the United States who were reported on for 2 years. We used a difference-indifferences approach to examine the effect of an increase in physical education instruction time between kindergarten and first grade on the difference in BMI change in the 2 grades, using the same child as the control. Results. One additional hour of physical education in first grade compared with the time allowed for physical education in kindergarten reduces BMI among girls who were overweight or at risk for overweight in kindergarten (coefficient = -0.31, P Conclusions. Expanding physical education programs in schools, in the form in which they currently exist, may be an effective intervention for combating obesity in the early years, especially among girls.