Improving the Odds for America's Children: Future Directions in Policy and Practice

ISBN 10: 1612506909 ISBN 13: 9781612506906

Publisher: Harvard Education Press, 2014

Synopsis

This landmark volume commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the Children’s Defense Fund, which has been an uncompromising champion of American youth for all of those years. Yet the book looks not to the past but at our current circumstances—and at the challenges we must meet now and in the future on behalf of our young people. The book examines critical issues—prenatal and infant health and development, early child care and education, school reform, the achievement gap, vulnerable children, juvenile justice, and child poverty—and highlights crucial practical and policy measures we need to consider and undertake if we are to better serve American children.

An invaluable survey of the conditions facing American youth—and a call to action at the local, state, and national levels—Improving the Odds for America’s Children is an urgent, informative, and inspired volume that addresses shortcomings and challenges we cannot afford to ignore.

Contributors include Sara Rosenbaum, Partow Zomorrodian, Jack P. Shonkoff, Joan Lombardi, Deborah Jewell- Sherman, Jal Mehta, Robert B. Schwartz, Jerry D. Weast, Greg J. Duncan, Richard J. Murnane, Michael S. Wald, Jane Waldfogel, Robert G. Schwartz, Laurence Steinberg, Arloc Sherman, Robert Greenstein, Sharon Parrott, and Eric Dearing.

About this title

About the Author:

Kathleen McCartney is the president of Smith College and former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Hirokazu Yoshikawa is the Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education. Laurie B. Forcier is senior academic projects manager at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Review:

"In Improving the Odds for America's Children, edited by McCartney (president, Smith College), Yoshikawa (New York Univ.), and Forcier (Harvard Graduate School of Education), the importance of investing in the future of the US by investing in the most vulnerable resource—the children—is superbly and clearly substantiated through the groundwork of scientifically based research and evidence-based practices...This collection of essays on the critical issues facing America's children is a mustread for educators, child and family advocates, and policy makers at all levels." — B. A. Perrachione, CHOICE Connect

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard Education Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1612506909
• ISBN 13: 9781612506906
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: McCartney Kathleen, Yoshikawa Hirokazu, Forcier Laurie B.