Giving Kids a Fair Chance

Giving Kids a Fair Chance
Author: James Joseph Heckman
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2013
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0262019132

Current social and education policies directed toward children focus on improving cognition, yet success in life requires more than smarts. Heckman calls for a refocus of social policy toward early childhood interventions designed to enhance both cognitive abilities and such non-cognitive skills as confidence and perseverance. This new focus on preschool intervention would emphasize improving the early environments of disadvantaged children and increasing the quality of parenting while respecting the primacy of the family and America's cultural diversity. Heckman shows that acting early has much greater positive economic and social impact than later interventions -- which range from reduced pupil-teacher ratios to adult literacy programs to expenditures on police -- that draw the most attention in the public policy debate. At a time when state and local budgets for early interventions are being cut, Heckman issues an urgent call for action and offers some practical steps for how to design and pay for new programs.

Giving Kids a Fair Chance

Giving Kids a Fair Chance
Author: James J. Heckman
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2017-09-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 026253505X

A top economist weighs in on one of the most urgent questions of our times: What is the source of inequality and what is the remedy? In Giving Kids a Fair Chance, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman argues that the accident of birth is the greatest source of inequality in America today. Children born into disadvantage are, by the time they start kindergarten, already at risk of dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, crime, and a lifetime of low-wage work. This is bad for all those born into disadvantage and bad for American society. Current social and education policies directed toward children focus on improving cognition, yet success in life requires more than smarts. Heckman calls for a refocus of social policy toward early childhood interventions designed to enhance both cognitive abilities and such non-cognitive skills as confidence and perseverance. This new focus on preschool intervention would emphasize improving the early environments of disadvantaged children and increasing the quality of parenting while respecting the primacy of the family and America's cultural diversity. Heckman shows that acting early has much greater positive economic and social impact than later interventions—which range from reduced pupil-teacher ratios to adult literacy programs to expenditures on police—that draw the most attention in the public policy debate. At a time when state and local budgets for early interventions are being cut, Heckman issues an urgent call for action and offers some practical steps for how to design and pay for new programs. The debate that follows delves deeply into some of the most fraught questions of our time: the sources of inequality, the role of schools in solving social problems, and how to invest public resources most effectively. Mike Rose, Geoffrey Canada, Charles Murray, Carol Dweck, Annette Lareau, and other prominent experts participate.

Giving Kids a Fair Chance

Giving Kids a Fair Chance
Author: James Joseph Heckman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2013-03-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780262314367

In Giving Kids a Fair Chance, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman argues that the accident of birth is the greatest source of inequality in America today. Children born into disadvantage are, by the time they start kindergarten, already at risk of dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, crime, and a lifetime of low-wage work. This is bad for all those born into disadvantage and bad for American society.Current social and education policies directed toward children focus on improving cognition, yet success in life requires more than smarts. Heckman calls for a refocus of social policy toward early childhood interventions designed to enhance both cognitive abilities and such non-cognitive skills as confidence and perseverance. This new focus on preschool intervention would emphasize improving the early environments of disadvantaged children and increasing the quality of parenting while respecting the primacy of the family and America's cultural diversity. Heckman shows that acting early has much greater positive economic and social impact than later interventions -- which range from reduced pupil-teacher ratios to adult literacy programs to expenditures on police -- that draw the most attention in the public policy debate. At a time when state and local budgets for early interventions are being cut, Heckman issues an urgent call for action and offers some practical steps for how to design and pay for new programs.The debate that follows delves deeply into some of the most fraught questions of our time: the sources of inequality, the role of schools in solving social problems, and how to invest public resources most effectively. Mike Rose, Geoffrey Canada, Charles Murray, Carol Dweck, Annette Lareau, and other prominent experts participate.

Closing the Opportunity Gap

Closing the Opportunity Gap
Author: Prudence L. Carter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2013-04-26
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0199983003

While the achievement gap has dominated policy discussions over the past two decades, relatively little attention has been paid to a gap even more at odds with American ideals: the opportunity gap. Opportunity and achievement, while inextricably connected, are very different goals. Every American will not go to college, but every American should be given a fair chance to be prepared for college. In communities across the U.S., children lack the crucial resources and opportunities, inside and outside of schools that they need if they are to reach their potential. Closing the Opportunity Gap offers accessible, research-based essays written by top experts who highlight the discrepancies that exist in our public schools, focusing on how policy decisions and life circumstances conspire to create the "opportunity gap" that leads inexorably to stark achievement gaps. They also describe sensible policies grounded in evidence that can restore and enhance opportunities. Moving beyond conventional academic discourse, Closing the Opportunity Gap will spark vital new conversations about what schools, parents, educators, and policymakers can and should do to give all children a fair chance to thrive.

Justice Across Ages

Justice Across Ages
Author: Juliana Uhuru Bidadanure
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2021
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198792182

Age structures our social fabric - our institutions, relationships, obligations, and entitlements. There is an age for voting, an age for working, and an age when one is expected (and sometimes required) to retire. Each stage of life also brings with it specific forms of social risks andvulnerabilities. Consequently, numerous and multidimensional inequalities arise between age groups. How should we respond to these inequalities? Are they akin to gender or racial disparities? Or is there something distinctive about age that mitigates the need for concern?Justice Across Ages answers these questions and proposes a theory of justice between age groups and co-existing generations. Written at the intersection of philosophy and public policy, the book explores the principles that should guide a fair distribution of goods like jobs, healthcare, income, andpolitical power among people at different stages of their life. It draws upon a range of cases to develop normative tools that help distinguish objectionable inequalities from acceptable ones and explores a variety of policy remedies.Like many political philosophers have, it may be tempting to assume that, since people experience the social position of different age groups throughout their lives, all that matters is that persons are equal over their complete lives. This book shows that we should resist this view and makes theproposition that many diachronically 'equal' arrangements are in fact unjustly unequal. In particular, we should view with suspicion many widely tolerated forms of age-based social hierarchies, such as the infantilization of young adults and older citizens, the political marginalization of teenagersand young adults, the exploitation of young workers through precarious contracts and unpaid internships, and the spatial segregation of elderly persons. If we ever are to live in a society that treats its members as equals, we need to pay attention to how age membership can alter our socialstanding. This view has important implications for how we should think of the political and moral value of equality, for how our social and political institutions should be designed, and also for how we should conduct ourselves in a range of contexts including the family, the workplace, and theuniversity classroom.

Solving the Achievement Gap

Solving the Achievement Gap
Author: Stuart S. Yeh
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2016-12-21
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1137587679

This book examines the cause of the student achievement gap, suggesting that the prevailing emphasis on socioeconomic factors, sociocultural influences, and teacher quality is misplaced. The cause of the achievement gap is not differences in parenting styles, or the economic advantages of middle-class parents, or differences in the quality of teachers. Instead, schools present learning tasks and award grades in ways that inadvertently undermine the self-efficacy, engagement, and effort of low-performing students, causing demoralization and exacerbating differences in achievement that are seen to exist as early as kindergarten. This process systematically maintains and widens initial gaps in achievement that might otherwise be expected to disappear over the K-12 years. Misdiagnosis of the nature of the achievement gap has led to misguided solutions. The author draws upon a range of research studies to support this view and to offer recommendations for improvement. “/div>div

If I Ran the Zoo

If I Ran the Zoo
Author: Dr. Seuss
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 63
Release: 1950
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0394800818

Gerald tells of the very unusual animals he would add to the zoo, if he were in charge.

Playing Fair, Having Fun

Playing Fair, Having Fun
Author: Daniel Grippo
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 78
Release: 2014-08-19
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1497681251

Sports and games help kids grow strong in mind and body. And they teach kids about life—about competitive pressure, the time crunch for families, and the risks of computer and internet games to consider. Share this book with the kids you care about, so that the games they play will be fun, fair, and life-giving. 32 pages.

How Not to be a Hypocrite

How Not to be a Hypocrite
Author: Adam Swift
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2003-12-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1134386923

How not to be a hypocrite: the indispensable guide to school choice that morally perplexed parents have been waiting for. Many of us believe in social justice and equality of opportunity - but we also want the best for our kids. How can we square our political principles with our special concern for our own children? This marvellous book takes us through the moral minefield that is school choice today. Does a commitment to social justice mean you have to send your children to the local comprehensive - regardless of its academic results? Is it hypocritical to disapprove of private schools and yet send your child to one? Some parents feel guilty but shouldn't. Others should feel guilty but don't. Read How Not to be a Hypocrite, then answer the questionnaire, and work out where you stand on this crucial issue.

Creating Compassionate Kids: Essential Conversations to Have with Young Children

Creating Compassionate Kids: Essential Conversations to Have with Young Children
Author: Shauna Tominey
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2019-01-08
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0393711609

Selected as a "Favorite Book for Parents in 2019" by Greater Good. Young children can surprise us with tough questions. Tominey’s essential guide teaches us how to answer them and foster compassion along the way. If you had to choose one word to describe the world you want children to grow up in, what would it be? Safe? Understanding? Resilient? Compassionate? As parents and caregivers of young children, we know what we want for our children, but not always how to get there. Many children today are stressed by academic demands, anxious about relationships at school, confused by messages they hear in the media, and overwhelmed by challenges at home. Young children look to the adults in their lives for everything. Sometimes we’re prepared... sometimes we’re not. In this book, Shauna Tominey guides parents and caregivers through how to have conversations with young children about a range of topics-from what makes us who we are (e.g., race, gender) to tackling challenges (e.g., peer pressure, divorce, stress) to showing compassion (e.g., making friends, recognizing privilege, being a helper). Talking through these topics in an age-appropriate manner—rather than telling children they are too young to understand—helps children recognize how they feel and how they fit in with the world around them. This book provides sample conversations, discussion prompts, storybook recommendations, and family activities. Dr. Tominey's research-based strategies and practical advice creates dialogues that teach self-esteem, resilience, and empathy: the building blocks for a more compassionate world.