This article, through the Urban Institute, reviews information on the Food Stamp Program, which provided $200 a month on average to participating households during fiscal year 2004. However, many eligible families do not enroll in the program. The authors summarize the effectiveness of 18 local outreach projects to reach out to those who do not apply for the program through technology and partnerships.

This year, the food stamp program is currently serving 25 million people across the country. This represents an increase of 8 million participants since 2000. This article from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reviews reasons for such growth and implications for the future.

This article reviews the effectiveness of the food stamp program by assessing the extent to which the program can reach its target population. In 2004, 38 million people were eligible for food stamps in any given month, and only 23 million participated in the program. Participation rates were higher among lower income families and among families on TANF and SSI, following past trends.

This issue brief outlines the demographics of the 45,000 low-income households receiving food stamps in Washington, D.C. Additionally, the Urban Institute reviewed the average distance between the clients' households to the closest supermarket, concluding that the most affordable options may no be the most accessible to low-income neighborhoods.

This report, co-authored by the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices and Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) is based largely on a roundtable meeting conducted in April 2000 by both organizations to discuss expanding postsecondary opportunities for low-income working parents and welfare recipients.

After-school programs can play an important positive role in the academic and personal development of young people, especially in an era when many parents work full time. Launched in 1997, the Extended-Service Schools (ESS) Initiative helped establish after-school programs in 17 communities across the country, each of which adapted one of four program models to local circumstances and needs. In this report, Public/Private Ventures and MDRC present the findings from their joint evaluation of the initiative, focusing on ESS programs in six cities where intensive data collection was conducted. Among the themes examined in the report are the programs' implementation, quality, and cost and their effects on students' after-school participation and attitudes toward school.

Because meaningful improvements in literacy require more hours of instruction than most adult learners receive, low student persistence is a critical issue for providers of adult education. This interim report from the Literacy in Libraries Across America persistence study describes adult students' characteristics and patterns of participation in nine library literacy programs and examines new strategies developed by the programs to raise persistence. Based on an implementation analysis and a look at participation levels before and as the strategies were put in place, the findings highlight public libraries' advantages as providers of literacy services and point to lessons for program design and implementation.

This paper looks at curricular and program redesign strategies being used in community colleges today to speed nontraditional students' advancement from lower levels of skill into credential programs and to shorten the time commitment that earning a credential demands of them. It presents a framework for understanding the range of experimentation with program and class reformatting and redesign, and identifies programs that exemplify promising approaches. The paper concludes with issues and questions that MDRC will need to address in assessing whether to proceed with a research program focused on program redesign efforts geared to working adults' needs.

Examining federal, state, and institutional programs, the paper presents a framework for understanding challenges to securing comprehensive financial assistance for low-income working students. The paper identifies promising approaches for supplementing student financial aid based on a range of programs implemented in the past and planned for the future. It also raises issues that bear consideration in designing a program that would be both effective in ways that can be measured through random assignment studies and replicable.

From the National Center for Children in Poverty, this article highlights effective programs, policy opportunities, and other strategies to improve educational outcomes for children. This brief is to inform policymakers and other stakeholders on strategies to promote the healthy educational development of children.