Simulating the Impacts of Cash Transfers on Poverty and School Attendance: The Case of Cambodia

Using the Cambodia Socioeconomic Survey 2004 and employing micro-static simulation techniques, we measure the potential impacts of cash transfer programs for children to identify targeted groups that will have the most effect on poverty and school attendance. We conclude that the largest impacts occur by targeting poor children. If this proves to be too administratively costly, then targeting children in rural areas or targeting all children living in the ten poorest provinces will also yield significant poverty reduction. With regard to improving school attendance, the same targeted groups generally provide the biggest impacts as well, although the impacts on school attendance tend to be smaller than on poverty reduction.     

The Effect of Parental Presence, Parents’ Education, and Household Headship on Adolescents’ Schooling and Work in Latin America

We investigate how the presence and education of parents affect adolescents’ school attendance, work participation, and school attainment in Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Panama. Across the four countries, approximately 20% of adolescents live in single-mother families and 4% in single-father families. Adolescents who live in single-mother families have significantly lower school attendance and attainment than adolescents who live with both parents. However, the effects of living in a single-mother family are small relative to the effects of parents’ education. Adolescents who live in single-mother families are not more likely to work than adolescents in two-parent families. Finally, targeting benefits to children in single-mother families would reach more children at risk of poor school outcomes than targeting children in female-headed households.Mary Arends-Kuenning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 408 Mumford Hall, MC-710, 1301 W. Gregory, Urbana, IL 61801; e-mail: marends@uiuc.edu.Suzanne Duryea, Inter-American Development Bank, 1300 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20577, USA; e-mail: suzanned@iadb.org.     

Household and economic factors associated with geographic and school mobility among low-income children

Child poverty has been shown to have lifelong consequences, and several policy interventions have sought to alleviate its effects. However, federal school policy insufficiently addresses ‘out of school’ factors, including high rates of residential and school mobility among poor students. The detrimental effects of school mobility on achievement and classroom behavior have been well documented, but the literature on the household dynamics associated with residential and school mobility among the poor is limited. This study uses detailed administrative data from Oregon's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to provide more information on residential and school mobility among low-income children of early elementary school age. Changes in household composition, income, employment, residential address, and school catchment were analyzed over several years to measure the relationship between mobility and household dynamics. We find that Oregon children from low-income families have high rates of residential and school mobility and that family dynamics rather than economic opportunity appear to increase the probability of moving. We offer several policy recommendations in light of the findings.     

Why Immigrant Background Matters for University Participation: A Comparison of Switzerland and Canada

This article extends our understanding of the difference in university participation between students with and without immigrant backgrounds by contrasting outcomes in Switzerland and Canada and by the use of new longitudinal data that are comparable between the countries. The research includes family socio‐demographic characteristics, family aspirations regarding university education, and the student's secondary school performance as explanatory variables of university attendance patterns. In Switzerland, compared with students with Swiss‐born parents, those with immigrant backgrounds are disadvantaged regarding university participation, primarily due to poor academic performance in secondary school. In comparison, students with immigrant backgrounds in Canada display a significant advantage regarding university attendance, even among some who performed poorly in secondary school. The included explanatory variables can only partly account for this advantage, but family aspirations regarding university attendance play a significant role, while traditional variables such as parental educational attainment are less important. In both countries, source region background is important. Possible reasons for the cross‐country differences are discussed.     

Immigrant and Native‐Born Differences in School Stability and Special Education: Evidence from New York City1

Using the literature on achievement differences as a framework and motivation, along with data on New York City students, we examine nativity differences in students’ rates of attendance, school mobility, school system exit, and special education participation. The results indicate that, holding demographic and school characteristics constant, foreign‐born have higher attendance rates and lower rates of participation in special education than native‐born. Among first graders, immigrants are also more likely to transfer schools and exit the school system between years than native‐born, yet the patterns are different among older students. We also identify large variation according to birth region.     

Using a Person-Centered Approach to Examine the Impact of Homelessness on School Absences

Brought on by increasing levels of economic vulnerability, homelessness is a pressing issue for our schools. Homeless students often miss an inordinate amount of school days and are thought to fall at the farthest end of a “continuum of poverty.” Theoretically they have worse outcomes than their peers, though the past 20 years of literature have found inconsistencies in these comparisons. Thus the literature suggests analysis to compare types of students based on outcomes rather than demographic categorizations, a person-centered approach. Using this approach, a comparison of the number of absences for homeless students and their housed peers is made through quantile analysis. Using school administrative data collected over one school year for an entire school district we found that homeless students as an aggregate do not miss significantly more days of school than their poorest peers. However, we found homelessness and poverty dramatically increase the number of absences for children who are in the higher percentiles of absences meaning homelessness has a greater impact on those who miss more days of school in general compared to regular attendees. Findings from this study indicate that homelessness may exacerbate problems rather than cause them. Implications for practice are discussed and directions for future study are proposed.     

Teacher and center stability and school readiness among low-income, ethnically diverse children in subsidized, center-based child care

Given large numbers of children attending center-based child care and considerable teacher and child mobility, it is important to study correlates and outcomes of children experiencing a change in their primary teacher/caregiver and/or a change to a different child care center. The present study investigated teacher and center stability in a group of 3238 urban, ethnically diverse, low-income, four-year-olds receiving subsidies to attend center-based child care. Children were individually assessed for cognitive and language development at the beginning and end of the pre-kindergarten year. Parents and teachers rated children on their socio-emotional skills and behavior at both time points. Children who experienced a change in their primary caregiver from the beginning to the end of the school year (41% of the sample) showed less growth in initiative for learning and attachment/closeness with adults over time, and scored lower on most indices of school readiness compared to those that had a stable caregiver. Children who moved to a different center during the year scored lower on teacher-reported initiative and attachment. African American children who switched centers were particularly at-risk for poorer outcomes, and boys who experienced a change in primary teacher, in particular, showed slower growth in cognitive development.     

Voluntary After‐School Alcohol and Drug Programs for Middle School Youth: If You Build it Right,They Will Come

Few after‐school programs target alcohol and other drug (AOD) use because it is difficult to encourage a diverse group of youth to voluntarily attend. The current study describes CHOICE, a voluntary after‐school program which targeted AOD use among middle school students. Over 4,000 students across eight schools completed surveys and 15% participated in CHOICE. Analyses indicated that there were some differences between CHOICE participants and nonparticipants. For example, African American and multiethnic students were more likely to attend. Past month alcohol users were more likely to initially attend, and marijuana users were more likely to continue attendance. Thus, CHOICE reached students of different racial and ethnic groups and attracted higher risk youth who may not typically obtain prevention services.     

Targeting the reach of educational support interventions in Kenya

The Free Primary Education program introduced in Kenya in 2003 increased primary school attendance rates. However, disparities in primary school education are evident throughout the nation. Using data from the 2003 and 2008–09 Kenya Demographic Health Surveys (KDHS), this study investigates the household characteristics—in addition to poverty—associated with poor school attendance. Using bivariate analysis and logistic regression we confirm that indeed household wealth is a factor in accessing free primary education. Younger children, those living in households headed by a non-biological parent are also less likely to attend school. Moreover households in arid and semi-arid regions of the country—areas characterized by historical socio-economic and political marginalization report significantly low primary school attendance rates. Findings from this study call attention to continued education disparities in spite of the free tuition program. The study further directs policy makers on how best to deploy scarce resources to target households most unable to provide adequate educational supports to children.     

A Road Oft Taken: Unaffordable Home Energy Bills,Forced Mobility And Childhood Education in Missouri

This study explores the interconnection between two seemingly unrelated problems: unaffordable home energy bills and poor educational attainment. The study goes beyond the self-evident observation that if hungry children make bad students, cold children would make bad students as well. Instead, the study focuses on the well-documented relationship between frequent household mobility and poor educational attainment. Looking specifically at a group of low-income households in Missouri, the study evaluates to what extent, if at all, unaffordable home energy bills contribute to frequent household mobility and, therefore, by extension, to the educational problems facing students in those households.     

Addressing systemic neglect of young indigenous children's rights to attend school in the northern territory,Australia

Indigenous children in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia have the highest school non‐attendance rates and the lowest literacy and numeracy outcomes in Australia. The NT Department of Health and Families classifies failure to send children to school as neglect, and as such, a form of child abuse. This paper contends that the failure to provide children with learning opportunities by a lack of insistence by authorities on attendance is a form of systemic neglect. It suggests that an educative approach is required to lead rather than coerce students into attending school, encouraging maximum participation in learning experiences that bridge cultural landscapes, and is inviting, inclusive and informed. The purpose of this paper is to recommend changes to ongoing systemic neglect of school truancy by examining models that build an Indigenous teaching staff and in so doing, integrate culturally responsive teaching with systemic support to produce a ‘school attending’ culture. Ethics approval for this paper has been sought and approved from the NT Catholic Education Office. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Education for children in sub-Saharan Africa: Predictors impacting school attendance

Under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child is entitled to free primary school education and access to secondary school or occupational training, and education has become one of the basic indicators of child wellbeing. Large scale studies published in the 1990s and early 2000s generally showed that significant educational disparities existed based on orphan status and a child's relationship to the head of the household. Poverty, gender and rural residence were also shown to contribute to the disparities. Since the data relied on by these studies were collected, the global community has conducted major campaigns to close these gaps, through the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This study (N = 124.592) examined these factors using eight country-years from five sub-Saharan African countries, since half of the children out of school live in that region. Findings show that considerable progress has been made to close the disparity based on orphan status, and the gender gap is also closing. However, poverty remains a challenge across all variables, and there are pockets of gender disparity for both boys and girls, particularly in areas where deeply rooted cultural and child raising patterns are retained. Most alarmingly, children who live with non-relatives have the lowest attendance rate. Continued efforts to target these groups of children and their households are urged, as well as research on the underserved children.     

Social Support Networks and School Outcomes: The Centrality of the Teacher

This investigation compares school outcomes for students who differ in the extent to which they perceive their parents, friends, and teachers—each alone and in combination—as important sources of social support. Findings indicate that middle and high school students who perceive high supportiveness from all three sources of support, as opposed to none, one, or two, have better attendance; spend more hours studying; avoid problem behavior more; have higher school satisfaction, engagement, and self-efficacy; and obtain better grades. Positive school outcomes are promoted when teacher support is perceived in combination with perceived support from parents and friends. Implications of the results for human service providers are presented.     

Do comprehensive schools reduce social mobility?1

This paper investigates the claim that the shift from a selective to a comprehensive school system had a deleterious effect on social mobility in Great Britain. Using data from the National Child Development Study, we compare the chances, for both class and income mobility, of those who attended different kinds of school. Where media attention focuses exclusively on the chances for upward mobility of those children from lowly origins who were (or would have been) judged worthy of selection into a grammar school, we offer more rounded analyses. We match respondents in a way that helps us to distinguish those inequalities in mobility chances that are due to differences between children from those due to differences between the schools they attended; we look at the effects of the school system on the mobility chances of all children, not merely those from less advantaged origins; and we compare comprehensive- and selective-system schools, not merely comprehensive and grammar schools. After matching, we find, first, that going to a grammar school rather than a comprehensive does not make low-origin children more likely to be upwardly mobile but it helps them move further if they are; second, that grammar schools do not benefit working-class children, in terms of class mobility, more than they benefit service-class children, but, in terms of income mobility, such schools benefit low-income children somewhat more than they benefit higher-income children - that benefit relating only to rather modest and limited movements within the income distribution. Finally, however, the selective system as a whole yields no mobility advantage of any kind to children from any particular origins: any assistance to low-origin children provided by grammar schools is cancelled out by the hindrance suffered by those who attended secondary moderns. Overall, our findings suggest that comprehensive schools were as good for mobility as the selective schools they replaced.     

Preschool attendance and school-age profiles: A revision

Data collected from the Uruguayan household survey (ENHA) of year 2006 is used to provide more evidence and revision on the longer-term impact of pre-primary education on subsequent school attendance and accumulated years of education. In order to control for unobserved individual or household characteristics that may affect both the participation in a preschool program and the later educational attainment, we instrumented preschool attendance with average attendance rates by age in each locality. Previous research found a positive effect both on school attendance and accumulated years of education, and this effect magnifies as children grow up. But, till 2006 survey, there's no accurate data available to calculate properly the accumulated years of education a child should have and so the causality between preschool and the outcome accumulated years of education was only approximated. Thus, a major contribution of this paper is that for the first time, ENHA makes possible to work with real data on school grade repetitions (estimate accurately the possible lag in children education) and we find results which are different to previous findings. In sum, though preschool impacts positively on subsequent school attendance, preschool seems not to have an increasing impact on years of education as children grow up if we take into account new data on grade repetition. Also this paper broadens the scope of the previous research adding data on rural areas and taking also into account children who do not live with both biological parents. Spreading out preschool education seems to be a successful policy option in a country with large drop-out rates but to cope with school grade repetition new options should be studied.     

Social Capital,Place of Residence,and College Attendance1

The relationship between social interaction and college attendance is examined across varying types of communities. Structural arrangements and interaction patterns that foster positive relationships are regarded as social capital and are conceptualized as investments that can yield human capital returns in terms of higher educational attainment. Logistic regression procedures are employed to analyze data from the High School and Beyond Longitudinal Study. The social capital model of college attendance is estimated for the full sample and separately for high school students living in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Predicted probabilities of attending college for students with high and low social capital are obtained. Results of these analyses indicate that parental expectation of college attendance is the most powerful predictor of subsequent college attendance among variables examined. Measures of community social capital and parental human capital also strongly predict attendance.     

“They will go like I did”: How parents think about college for their young children in the context of rising costs

Rising college costs and student loan burdens have triggered national debates about whether a college degree is “worth it.” Parents raising children in the midst of these debates may be evaluating the value of a college degree relative to its costs and adjusting their educational expectations for their children, shaping future generations' socialization toward college. In this context, it is unclear how theoretical models on college attendance decision-making perform in explaining parents' thoughts about college for their children. This qualitative study elicited early perspectives on college through in-depth interviews with 37 parents of kindergarten children from one school district in a mid-sized, Midwestern city. Almost unanimously, lower-income parents with some college education saw a college degree as a catalyst of their children's upward mobility, though very few thought they could help their children afford college. Higher-income parents more often expressed doubts about pursuing a college degree or the value of that degree acquired with debt.     

FAMILY STRUCTURE AND COLLEGE GRADUATION: IS THE STEPPARENT EFFECT MORE NEGATIVE THAN THE SINGLE PARENT EFFECT?

We use data from the National Longitudinal Education Study (NELS) to build upon previous research that considered the negative effects of living in mother-only families and stepparent families on the subsequent educational attainment of children. Our results break new ground in finding that although those who lived in a mother-only family are not less likely overall to graduate college than those who lived with two biological parents, they are significantly less likely to graduate college given four-year college attendance even when other important factors are controlled. In addition, we find that those who lived in a stepparent family are less likely overall to graduate college than those who lived with two biological parents when other important factors are controlled. This difference for those who lived in a stepparent family is due to lower chances of four-year college attendance given high school graduation and of college graduation given four-year college attendance.     

Teacher–child relationships in the context of poverty: the role of frequent school mobility

Children's relationships with their teachers are critical for classroom-based learning, but children growing up in poverty may be at risk for lower-quality relationships with teachers. Little is known about how changing schools, one poverty-related risk, affects teacher–child relationships. Using growth curve models that control for a host of other poverty-related risks, this study explores the association between children changing schools frequently (defined as three or more school moves) between preschool and third grade and the quality of their relationships with their teachers over these five years in a low-income, ethnic-minority sample. Children who frequently moved schools were reported to be less close to their teachers in third grade and experienced steeper declines in closeness than children who did not change schools frequently. Moreover, the effects of frequent school mobility at third grade were robust to other poverty-related risks, including residential mobility, parental education risk, family income, and single-parent households. Changing schools was unrelated to children's conflict with teachers. We discuss these findings in the context of policies that support students’ transitions when changing schools.     

The impact of mother's education on indicators of school performance of first through third grade primary school children living in low socioeconomic areas in Khartoum,Sudan

This study examines factors related to school achievement among low-income urban families in the Sudan. Data were obtained during January-February 1992 from a sample of 198 students aged 6-10 years from boys' and girls' schools in Ombada settlement in Khartoum, Elhag-Yousif in Khartoum North, and Arkwait in Khartoum. 53.5% of the sample were first enrolled in school after the age of 7 years. About 30% were enrolled prior to the age of 7 years. 4.5% had repeated a grade. About 25% had perfect attendance. 37% were absent for 1-2% of school days; 18.2% were absent for 3-4% of school days, and a similar percentage were absent for 5% or more of school days. Over 66% were absent due to medical reasons. About 41% of math scores and 58% of language scores were above 50, out of a possible total score of 60. 29% of math scores and 21% of language scores ranged from 41 to 50. 13.5% of math scores and 10.5% of language scores were failing. Class size ranged from 53 to 102 persons per class. Children who were enrolled in the higher grades tended to have been enrolled at a later age. The age of enrollment was negatively related to maternal educational level and weight for age. Poorly educated mothers tended to enroll their children later, and lower weight-for-age children tended to be enrolled later. Students from boys' schools in Khartoum and schools in the Khartoum area had a higher absenteeism rate. Students whose fathers were laborers or self-employed had greater absences. Children whose mothers had lower educational levels had greater absenteeism. Children with lower weight-for-height had more absenteeism. Absenteeism was positively correlated with height-for-age and the number of types of illnesses that the child had during the school year. Students who lived in Khartoum North had higher scores. Findings indicate that educational outcomes were related to home background and health conditions.