America's Diversity of Children

Abstract With a focus on the United States, this paper addresses the basic social indicators question: How are we doing?

Middle-Class Children Falling Further Behind Declining Prospects for Middle Class Kids Will Be Worsened by Budget Cuts NEW YORK, NY – America’s middle-class children have been steadily falling further behind their more privileged peers for the past quarter century – but the worst of the fallout has been held in check by essential policies and programs that could be unraveled, depending on key budget decisions, according to a new study released by the Foundation for Child Development.

This report, authored by Jane Waldfogel of Columbia University and the London School of Economics, describes the recent efforts of the United Kingdom (UK) to end child poverty by 2020.

On November 17, 2010, First Focus hosted a Congressional Briefing, “Children in the Recession,” sponsored by Senator Bob Casey (Pennsylvania). At the briefing, First Focus and the Policy Lab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s released the policy brief, “The Effect of the Recession on Child Well-Being.” The brief finds that even a short spell of poverty can have lifelong effects on vulnerable children and families, and provides evidence that public benefits and government-sponsored programs that support children and families play a pivotal role in speeding slow recovery and can reduce the long-term effects of the recession.

This study examines the implementation and organization of the state mandated curriculum in the 4-hour SEI block in 18 K-12 classrooms in 5 different districts.

In the Harvard Education Letter, Michael Sadowski reports that Prekindergarten, not just preschool, may be the key to narrowing disparities in achievement by race, ethnicity, and income.

Hispanics account for over one-fifth of newborns in the United States, and Hispanic children, on average, achieve at much lower levels from kindergarten forward than the non-Hispanic white majority and Asian Americans.

This paper describes what is currently known about early childhood education for Hispanic children in the United States and suggests what can be done to help Hispanic children to start school prepared and to be academically successful during the primary grades.