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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Author: townsend

Early Childhood Development – New Orleans, LA

Fewer kindergarteners in high-poverty New Orleans neighborhoods ‘developmentally vulnerable,’ study finds, By Danielle Dreilinger, February 8, 2013, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “A new study has unexpected good news for New Orleans’ education system: Several high-poverty neighborhoods are sending a relatively low number of children to kindergarten who are considered ‘developmentally vulnerable,’ according to data released this week by the Orleans Public Education Network. Children entering elementary school with certain social and intellectual deficits are likely to struggle academically. The findings come from the Early Development Instrument, an internationally respected survey that measures kids’ health, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, communication and general knowledge. Children are considered developmentally vulnerable if they score in the bottom 10th percentile in at least two of the five areas. The measure is strongly tied to how well 4th-graders score on standardized tests…”

Child Care Subsidies – Kentucky

Advocates: Child-care subsidy cuts will force parents from jobs and close care centers, By Beth Musgrave, February 6, 2013, Lexington Herald-Leader: “Big cuts to a program that helps low-income families pay for child care will probably force many single parents to quit their jobs and shutter some child-care centers, warn advocates who will rally Thursday in the Capitol. In Martin County, between 60 percent and 75 percent of children at the county’s only licensed child-care center, Martin County Kiddie College, receive a state child-care subsidy, owner Brenda Bowen said…”

Early College Programs

  • Pathway from poverty: Pioneering program helps low-income children get degrees, IBM jobs, By Celia Baker and Mercedes White, February 9, 2013, Deseret News: “By the time Trudon Exter walks through the metal detectors at the front doors of Brooklyn’s Paul Robeson High School, he’s been commuting for more than two hours. To get to school by 8 a.m. from his home in Queens, he rides two buses and a subway through some of New York City’s toughest neighborhoods. Trudon, 14, is a little small for his age and carries an enormous backpack stuffed with school supplies, snacks and a change of clothes for gym class. There are fleeting moments when he wishes he was back in Queens in his neighborhood school’s ninth-grade class with his old friends and not in Brooklyn. But some of his friends have already given up on high school. As he walks the three blocks between the subway and the school he sees kids about his age stumbling out of the neighborhood’s abandoned row houses. He wants something better. To help kids like Trudon reach their goals, a college in New York City has teamed up with IBM to create an innovative program that fuses high school and community college under one roof…”
  • A path forward: Finishing high school with college degree, By Benjamin Wood, February 9, 2013, Deseret News: “In May, Travis Butterfield will earn his associate degree from Salt Lake Community College with credits to spare, a milestone on his path to a planned career in reconstructive surgery. Assuming, of course, that he graduates from high school first. ‘I still need to finish high school gym,’ he said. ‘It’s the only thing holding me back from graduating.’ Butterfield is a senior at ITINERIS Early College High School, a charter school located on the Jordan campus of Salt Lake Community College. There, Butterfield and his classmates split their time between courses at ITINERIS and college classes across the parking lot at the college, earning their way to a high school diploma and an associate degree simultaneously…”
  • Talented teens get a head start on college life, By Mará Rose Williams, February 10, 2013, Kansas City Star: “Danielle Doerr spent her morning studying calculus and conducting nanostructure research here on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University. Now, in the afternoon, she sits in the lobby of her dorm wearing headphones, soaking up lectures on quantum physics and neuroscience by Massachusett Institute of Technology professors…”