New books by human development and social policy professors Greg J. Duncan and James E. Rosenbaum have been released recently. The books offer insightful solutions to problems related to poverty and education.
Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children by Duncan, Aletha C. Huston and Thomas S. Weisner explores a promising program in Milwaukee that could serve as a national model for reducing poverty and improving children's lives.
The New Hope program was designed to boost employment among the city's poor by providing subsidies for work, health and child care, as well as job counseling. In-depth research shows that this three-year social experiment brought encouraging results, including declining poverty rates, increases in employment and earnings, and improved well-being and school achievement for children.
Reforms of the 1990s moved many families from welfare dependency to the ranks of the working poor, struggling to escape poverty. Duncan and his co-authors demonstrate why New Hope deserves to be regarded as a model for state and national policies to assist poor families.
After Admission: From College Access to College Success by Rosenbaum, Regina Deil-Amen and Ann E. Person explores how community colleges could be more effective.While attendance at community colleges has exploded in recent years, changing the face of American schooling, many community college students do not graduate or gain advantages in the job market. Rosenbaum and his co-authors maintain that community colleges could learn lessons from two-year private occupational colleges, which on the whole prepare students better for the labor market.
Innovations that can be instructive for guiding a new generation of students include close monitoring of student progress, regular meetings with advisors and structured plans for meeting career goals. "Design elements remove bureaucracy and barriers students face in community colleges, catch mistakes, support students and help students make the right progress," says Rosenbaum.
Timing is also important. "Private schools have done a lot to make schooling progress in a timely, relevant way," he notes. Finally, two-year private schools excel at job placement. Private colleges create institutional contacts that are very effective, especially since many low-income students lack contacts, according to Rosenbaum.
Information about ordering both books may be accessed through the Russell Sage Foundation web site.
Last Modified: 8/14/09