Located just a few blocks away from the U.S. Capitol, the Earth Conservation Corps is far removed from the world of legislators, lobbyists and policymakers. ECC provides a striking example of a program that engages young people in protecting the environment while learning valuable lessons about life in the process. CFK intern Kate Carta profiled the organization.

With the nation's only federally-funded school voucher program well into its second year, those involved in getting this controversial experiment up and running say they've learned a lot. But it's still too early to answer the really big question: is the program helping low-income students achieve? Susan Phillips takes a look.

While the federal No Child Left Behind law has focused needed attention on educational inequities, some students remain nearly invisible: kids involved in the juvenile justice system. Caitlin Johnson looks at efforts to reconnect these children to the education they desperately need— and in particular at Washington, DC's Maya Angelou public charter high school.

The newest, and presumably last, museum to win space on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. opens this week with much expected fanfare. Once the celebration is over, museum leaders hope to get down to the serious business of overcoming stereotypes and teaching kids about the American Indian past, present and future.

Founded in 1996, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a bipartisan, nonprofit anti-crime organization led by more than 2,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, victims of violence and leaders of police officer associations.

Our mission is to take a hard-nosed, skeptical look at the research about what really works-and what doesn't work-to keep kids from becoming criminals. We then put that information in the hands of policy-makers and the public.

DC Action for Children (DC ACT) is an independent, non-profit, multi-issue advocacy organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children living in the District of Columbia.

The mission of the D.C. Children's Trust Fund is to foster the well-being of the District's children and their families by leading the way toward the prevention of child abuse and neglect. The Trust serves as a catalyst for prevention efforts by leveraging private and governmental resources, providing resources and technical assistance to community-based organizations, schools, and churches to strengthen families and thereby reduce the risk of child abuse. A major objective of the Trust is to define and develop standards for primary prevention for the D.C. community at-large.

Based on the averaged freshman graduation rate, a new measure the U.S. Dept. of Education is using to assess more accurately and comprehensively how many students are graduating from high school, 11 states drastically overestimate the number of students who graduate from their high schools. The biggest offenders include North Carolina, New Mexico, Mississippi, Indiana and South Dakota, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education summary. New Jersey, North Dakota and Wisconsin graduated the highest percentages of their high school students on time, while Washington, DC, South Carolina and Georgia had the lowest graduation rates.

What do sixth-graders say they're doing in their after-school hours in the District? Private school students reported more time with adults, in class, and on the Internet than public school students. See the results of the Urban Institutes survey, taken November, 1999.

The Morino Institute took a "hands-on" attitude in establishing pilot computer centers in four different Washington, DC schools, arguing that giving computers to schools is not enough unless you train staff and fund technical support.

Issue Areas:
Education (as relates to Foster Care)
Foster Care
Health Care and Health Policy (as relates to Foster Care)
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (with Child Welfare focus)
Mentoring

Issue Areas:
Foster Care
Minority Youth
Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

Issue Areas:
Foster Care
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
Model Practices and Policies
Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

Rachel Schumacher is a Senior Fellow in Child Care and Early Education at the Center for Law and Social Policy