At last, here is a compassionate, humane, and informative volume on the most unique and vulnerable group in our society today--homeless children. Homeless Children: The Watchers and the Waiters is unique because it offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the children and the enormously complicated causes of and solutions to their tragedy. The contributing authors discuss homeless children and the resolution of the problem, as well as the resulting policy and practice implicat...

Where do our prejudices come from? Why are some people more biased than others? Is it possible for individuals, and society as a whole, to truly defeat prejudice? In these pages, leading scientists, psychologists, educators, activists, and many others offer answers, drawing from new scientific discoveries that shed light on why and how our brains form prejudices, how racism hurts our health, steps we can take to mitigate prejudiced instincts, and what a post-prejudice society might actuall...

Two of the most respected voices in education and a team of young education scholars identify 50 myths and lies that threaten America's public schools. With hard-hitting information and a touch of comic relief, Berliner, Glass, and their Associates separate fact from fiction in this comprehensive look at modern education reform. They explain how the mythical failure of public education has been created and perpetuated in large part by political and economic interests that stand to gain fro...

Black and Hispanic students are not learning enough in our public schools, and their typically poor performance is the most important source of ongoing racial inequality in America today—thus, say Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, the racial gap in school achievement is the nation's most critical civil rights issue and an educational crisis; it's no wonder that "No Child Left Behind," the 2001 revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, made closing the racial gap in educ...

This wide-ranging book shows why Paul Longmore is one of the most respected figures in disability studies today. Understanding disability as a major variety of human experience, he urges us to establish it as a category of social, political, and historical analysis in much the same way that race, gender, and class already have been. The essays here search for the often hidden pattern of systemic prejudice and probe into the institutionalized discrimination that affects the one in five Amer...

Signed into law in 2002, the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) promised to revolutionize American public education. Originally supported by a bipartisan coalition, it purports to improve public schools by enforcing a system of standards and accountability through high-stakes testing. Many people supported it originally, despite doubts, because of its promise especially to improve the way schools serve poor children. By making federal funding contingent on accepting a system of tests ...

In this landmark volume, Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane lay out a meticulously researched case showing how—in a time of spiraling inequality—strategically targeted interventions and supports can help schools significantly improve the life chances of low-income children.The authors offer a brilliant synthesis of recent research on inequality and its effects on families, children, and schools. They describe the interplay of social and economic factors that has...

The story of foster care in the United States is the story of the failure of the social safety net to aid poor, largely black, parents in their attempt to make a home for their children.Shattered Bonds tells this story as no other book has before -- from the perspective of a prominent black, female legal theoretician. The current state of the child-welfare system in America is a well-known tragedy. Thousands of children every year are removed from their pa...

From the author of Homeless Narratives & Pretreatment PathwaysJay S. Levy brings us a new educationalresource entitled Homeless Outreach & Housing First: LessonsLearned. This monograph features three written works onhomelessness inclusive of an article on moral, fiscal, andquality of life considerations, a new story entitled "Ronald’sNarrative: The Original Housing First", and an interview thatwas originally featured in Recovering The Self: A Journal of...

Social workers take pride in their commitment to social and economic justice, peace, and human rights, and in their responses to related inequalities and social problems. At a time when economic globalization, armed conflict, and ecological devastation continue to undermine human rights and the possibilities for social justice, the need for linking a structural analysis to social work practice is greater than ever.The second edition of this popular social work practice text more fu...

In this solidly researched book, the authors demonstrate that the knowledge and techniques exist to decrease the incidence of welfare dependency, poor single-parent families and alienated, uneducated youth. In addition to providing a detailed account of the problem, they describe twenty-four programs that have proved successful in changing the lives of seriously disadvantaged children.

What drug provides Americans with the greatest pleasure and the greatest pain? The answer, hands down, is alcohol. The pain comes not only from drunk driving and lost lives but also addiction, family strife, crime, violence, poor health, and squandered human potential. Young and old, drinkers and abstainers alike, all are affected. Every American is paying for alcohol abuse.Paying the Tab, the first comprehensive analysis of this complex policy issue, calls for broadening ...