As the incomes of affluent and poor families have diverged over the past three decades, so too has the educational performance of their children. But how exactly do the forces of rising inequality affect the educational attainment and life chances of low-income children? In Whither Opportunity? a distinguished team of economists, sociologists, and experts in social and education policy examines the corrosive effects of unequal family resources, disadvantaged neighborhoods, insecure labor markets, and worsening school conditions on K-12 education. This groundbreaking book illuminates the ways rising inequality is undermining one of the most important goals of public education—the ability of schools to provide children with an equal chance at academic and economic success. The most ambitious study of educational inequality to date, Whither Opportunity? analyzes how social and economic conditions surrounding schools affect school performance and children’s educational achievement. The book shows that from earliest childhood, parental investments in children’s learning affect reading, math, and other attainments later in life. Contributor Meredith Phillip finds that between birth and age six, wealthier children will have spent as many as 1,300 more hours than poor children on child enrichment activities such as music lessons, travel, and summer camp. Greg Duncan, George Farkas, and Katherine Magnuson demonstrate that a child from a poor family is two to four times as likely as a child from an affluent family to have classmates with low skills and behavior problems – attributes which have a negative effect on the learning of their fellow students. As a result of such disparities, contributor Sean Reardon finds that the gap between rich and poor children’s math and reading achievement scores is now much larger than it was fifty years ago. And such income-based gaps persist across the school years, as Martha Bailey and Sue Dynarski document in their chapter on the growing income-based gap in college completion. Whither Opportunity? also reveals the profound impact of environmental factors on children’s educational progress and schools’ functioning. Elizabeth Ananat, Anna Gassman-Pines, and Christina Gibson-Davis show that local job losses such as those caused by plant closings can lower the test scores of students with low socioeconomic status, even students whose parents have not lost their jobs. They find that community-wide stress is most likely the culprit. Analyzing the math achievement of elementary school children, Stephen Raudenbush, Marshall Jean, and Emily Art find that students learn less if they attend schools with high student turnover during the school year – a common occurrence in poor schools. And David Kirk and Robert Sampson show that teacher commitment, parental involvement, and student achievement in schools in high-crime neighborhoods all tend to be low. For generations of Americans, public education provided the springboard to upward mobility. This pioneering volume casts a stark light on the ways rising inequality may now be compromising schools’ functioning, and with it the promise of equal opportunity in America.
The rapid collapse of socialism has raised new economic policy questions and revived old theoretical issues. In this book, Joseph Stiglitz explains how the neoclassical, or Walrasian model (the formal articulation of Adam Smith's invisible hand), which has dominated economic thought over the past half century, may have wrongly encouraged the belief that market socialism could work. Stiglitz proposes an alternative model, based on the economics of information, that provides greater theoretical insight into the workings of a market economy and clearer guidance for the setting of policy in transitional economies. Stiglitz sees the critical failing in the standard neoclassical model underlying market socialism to be its assumptions concerning information, particularly its failure to consider the problems that arise from lack of perfect information and from the costs of acquiring information. He also identifies problems arising from its assumptions concerning completeness of markets, competitiveness of markets, and the absence of innovation. Stiglitz argues that not only did the existing paradigm fail to provide much guidance on the vital question of the choice of economic systems, the advice it did provide was often misleading.
The Cambodian election was a subject of great concern before and during its implementation as many thought it was doomed to failure. Even the post-election situation today is fraught with uncertainty. Analysing the significance of the election and what might come after has not always been easy. Whither Cambodia? Beyond the Election, written by two well-known individuals, Timothy Carney and Tan Lian Choo, attempts to provide some answers. In his capacity as Director of the Division of Information and Education, UNTAC (the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia), Mr Carney helped to facilitate the electoral process in Cambodia. Ms Tan is the Bangkok correspondent of the Straits Times.
Analyses various aspects of economic cooperation among 18 Pacific-Rim countries, members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Covers trends in the 1990s and gives projections to 2020.
"Whither Thou Goest" is an exciting book that become written by means of William Le Queux. This tale takes location in the early 1900s and is set the Earl of Saxham and his son, Guy. The Earl gets livid whilst Guy falls in love with a woman who is not well-known sufficient to be in his circle of relative’s institution, and Guy insists on marrying her despite the fact that he has other alternatives. The plot builds with interesting moments and slim escapes as the characters address the troubles that come up because of their uncommon love. Readers are taken on a journey full of movement, trip, and mystery because the tale is going on. William Le Queux's style of writing brings the story to life by means of describing the settings in brilliant detail and preserving the readers' interest with twists and turns that build tension. The book skillfully mixes romance, mystery, and own family drama, retaining readers fascinated from the start to the end. "Whither Thou Goest" shows how true Le Queux is at telling tales and how he can make humans that are interesting to examine approximately. This book shall we readers escape proper into a global of love, secrets and techniques, and sudden discoveries with its deep tale and captivating plot.
Birth rates are falling and fertility rates are well below replacement levels. At the same time, the economic crisis has forced governments to scale back public spending, reduce child support, and raise the retirement age, causing immense social conflict. Taking a step outside the disciplinary comfort zone, Whither the Child? asks how demography affects individuals and society. What does it feel like to live in a low fertility world? What are the consequences? Is there even a problem - economically, culturally and morally? No other book confronts so many dimensions of the low fertility issue and none engage with the thorny issues of child psychology, parenting, family, and social policy that are tackled head-on here.
Regional studies are at a vibrant conjuncture. ‘Regions’ continue to provide a conceptual and analytical focus for often overlapping concerns with economic, social, political, cultural and ecological change. In the context of increased interest in inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches, ‘regions’ remain an arena in which synthesis across disciplines – economics, geography, planning, politics and sociology – can take place. Yet recent work has raised fundamental questions about how we think about and research ‘regions’ and regional change, ‘development’, governance and regulation. First, emergent conceptual ideas have introduced new thinking about space, place and scale that interprets ‘regions’ as ‘unbounded’, relational spaces. This work has disturbed notions of ‘regions’ as bounded territories and questioned hierarchical systems of scale through more complex, multi-scalar approaches. Second, research methodology has grown in sophistication and sensitivity but remains somewhat polarised between the binaries of positivist, often quantitative, and more theoretically diverse, typically qualitative, approaches. Last, regional governance, policy and politics are wrestling with the conceptual, methodological and political complexities of new modes and geographies of governance and emergent multi-agent and multi-level institutional architectures. This book brings together important voices in regional studies to contribute to and reflect upon these current issues and debates. While we are at an early stage in beginning to think through what such conceptual, theoretical, methodological, governance, policy and political innovations and developments mean for regional studies, the magnitude and resonance of such issues underpin the vitality of research on the region. This book was published as a special issue of Regional Studies.
Continuing with the adventures of Old West heroine Breanna Baylor, book six of the Angel of Mercy series begins with the planning of a wedding -- between Breanna and the legendary Stranger, whose true identity has now been revealed. Before the wedding, however, John's best man, Chief U.S. Marshal Solomon Duvall, disappears. And after the wedding, both John and Breanna -- who has pledged, "Whither thou goest, I will go" -- put their own lives in danger as they set out to find him.