As I mentioned, IMO, the best way to help disadvantaged kids would be to give them free nutritious food at school twice a day starting in kindergarten.
This sounds very nice and all that, but how about some back-up?
The best ways to help disadvantaged kids aren't really that big of a mystery. We don't want to invest in them because they're expensive and because many people would perceive them as intrusive. You invest in young, disadvantaged mothers when they are pregnant and you visit them in their homes. Then you start with their kids when they are VERY youn, and you provide families with very high-quality daycare. YOU REACH THESE KIDS WHEN THEY ARE YOUNG. That is the key. .
http://evidencebasedprograms.org/wordpress/?page_id=57Nurse-Family Partnership
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HIGHLIGHTS
Intervention: A nurse home visitation program for first-time mothers – mostly low-income and unmarried – during their pregnancy and children’s infancy.
Evaluation Methods:Three well-conducted randomized controlled trials, each carried out in a different population and setting.
Key Findings: Pattern of sizable, sustained effects on important child and maternal outcomes in all three trials. The specific types of effects differed across the three trials, possibly due to differences in the populations treated. Effects found in two or more trials include (i) reductions in child abuse/neglect and injuries (20-50%); (ii) reduction in mothers’ subsequent births (10-20%) during their late teens and early twenties; (iii) improvement in cognitive/educational outcomes for children of mothers with low mental health/confidence/intelligence (e.g., 6 percentile point increase in grade 1-6 reading/math achievement).
hild FIRST
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HIGHLIGHTS
Intervention: A home visitation program for low-income families with young children at high risk of emotional, behavioral, or developmental problems, or child maltreatment.
Evaluation Methods: A well-conducted randomized controlled trial.
Key Findings: 40-70% reduction in serious levels of (i) child conduct and language development problems, and (ii) mothers’ psychological distress, one year after random assignment. 33% reduction in families’ involvement with child protective services (CPS) for possible child maltreatment, over three years.
Other: A study limitation is that its sample was geographically concentrated in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Replication of these findings in a second trial, in another setting, would be desirable to confirm the initial results and establish that they generalize to other settings where the intervention might be implemented.
Especially look at the Abcedarian project:
http://evidencebasedprograms.org/wordpress/?page_id=70and Perry Preschool:
http://evidencebasedprograms.org/wordpress/?page_id=65
