New Releases by Ellen Schwartz

In New York City, elementary and middle school students speak a wide variety of languages in their homes (167) and come from a vast number of countries (192). Over 1 in 10 children are limited English proficient (LEP) and another 3 in 10 are English proficient and from homes where languages other than English are spoken. Given the challenges to educating students with varying language needs, it is important to gain an understanding of the differences and similarities between students who are not yet proficient in English and those who are proficient, and to further distinguish among the English proficient students who are and are not exposed to English at home. What are the differences in the characteristics and school performance of LEP and English proficient students? Do English proficient students exposed to English at home differ from those exposed to other languages? This report, a companion to our report on immigrant students, answers these and other questions through a statistical portrait of the demographic characteristics and academic performance of New York City's elementary and middle school students by English language proficiency and home language groups.

Objective: This paper explores the effect of the economic conditions of source countries and the human capital characteristics of coethnic immigrant communities on foreign-born students' reading and math achievement. Methods: We use data on New York City public school foreign-born students from 39 countries merged with Census data on the characteristics of the city's immigrants, and United Nations data on the economic conditions of countries. We estimate regressions of student achievement on home country and coethnic immigrant community characteristics, controlling for student and school attributes. Results: Children from middle income nations and nations where English is an official language have lower reading scores than students from other nations, though no such effects are observed for math. Children from immigrant communities with higher levels of income and educational attainment perform better in school than children from other communities. Yet children in highly English proficient immigrant communities test slightly lower than children from less proficient communities.

More than 86,000 students enrolled in first grade in New York City in the fall of 1995. These students were expected to graduate from high school in June 2007. As we seek to understand why some met this goal while others did not, it is critical to know where they began. Researchers followed this cohort for their first eight years of schooling: from their first days in fall 1995 through June 2003 when they were expected to complete eighth grade. To learn (1) the demographic characteristics of the first grade class of 1995-96, (2) who stays and who leaves, (3) who is held back, and (4) the academic outcomes for each group. The New York University (NYU) Institute for Education and Social Policy analyzed student-level data provided by the New York City Department of Education for all first through eighth graders from 1995-96 through 2002-03. This report presents their key findings and insights. (Contains 7 figures and 5 footnotes.).

Yossi Mendelsohn works hard to help his family survive after they flee Russia to find a better life in Montreal. He sells newspapers and carries bundles from the garment factory. Yossi longs to play "le hockey" with the French boys, but he has no skates. When his father falls ill and his sister and her fiancé organize a walkout at the factory, Yossi''s dream of lacing on skates seems farther away than ever.

Giving birth to Jacob was supposed to be the happiest moment in Ellen's life, but for her and her husband Jeff, the joyful moment turned into their worst nightmare when they learned Jacob had Canavan Disease: a devastating cerebral degenerative disease of infancy. Jacob would never see, speak, walk, or sit up. There ie no treatment or cure. He would die. Maybe in six months. Maybe in two years. No one knew. In some ways, the worst was yet to come, for not only was Jacob born with a death sentence, but his disease would require as many as eight serious operations within his first year. The unbearable helplessness of a parent forced to endure with impotence the endless agony of a son in constant pain. He required constant, round-the-clock supervision. The strain and stress on the family was unbelievable. And yet, as Ellen painstakingly chronicles in this raw but unforgettable memoir of a mother and her son, Despite all his disabilities, Jacob loves life more than anyone I have ever met. He shows me how to live each day to the fullest. Jacob is eight years old. He continues -- despite the odds -- to live each day to the fullest.

The authors show how our advertising-driven culture causes material desires to grow with no corresponding increase in personal time or energy to pursue them.

Recent research on productivity growth has focused on public infrastructure and its impact on economic growth and productivity. We construct a model of firms'' technology and behavior, taking advantage of the analytical framework provided in the cost-function-based applied production-theory literature, and apply it to state-level data for U.S. manufacturing. We find that infrastructure investment provides a significant return to manufacturing firms and augments productivity growth. The net benefits of infrastructure investment may or may not be positive, depending upon the social costs of infrastructure investment and the relative growth rates of output and infrastructure.

Illustrated by Stefan Czernecki Mr Belinsky makes the best bagels in town and his loyal customers come in every day for their favourite kind. But when a fancy new bakery opens across the street, Mr Belinsky decides he must make other things to keep up. The new cakes and pies he makes bring him great success but amid it all something is missing, and Mr Belinsky''s flour-covered hands hold the secret to what it is, and to his happiness. Full colour illustrations throughout. Ages 3 - 7.

Provides lessons plans about commonalities, health, and cooperation.