Kids Count Data Book 2004

This book focuses on projects using child indicators outside of a research context and provides a user-friendly set of materials to help professionals or organizations start and sustain high-quality child indicator projects. The book is based on the fundamental idea that better data leads to better decisions regarding programs for children. The number of people with experience and expertise in developing child indicator projects is limited in many countries. This initiative provides critical information on the topic in a cost-effective manner, and thereby fills an important niche regarding the use of child indicators. To the extent that it promotes more and better child indicator projects, the book leads to more attention for children and better decision-making regarding public support for children. It is also likely to increase the number of such projects that exist and to improve the quality of such projects. This easy-to-use and practical guide is for all professionals and organizations working with child indicators data.

Learn how to develop and teach effective courses on the vital issues of family life The Craft of Teaching About Families presents a variety of course designs, evaluation methods, and teaching techniques and strategies that can be used to address the complexities of family life. This unique book prepares students for the challenges they’ll face as they leave the campus for the classroom, providing them with the problem-solving skills they’ll need for success. The book’s contributors—a distinguished panel of family scientists, sociologists, public policy analysts, psychologists, and extension specialists—examine a range of topics, including family law and policy, advocacy, parenting skills, international families, and diversity. One of the few books geared to teaching family studies, particularly family policy and family law, The Craft of Teaching About Families reaffirms the importance of teaching in a time when controversial family issues receive constant attention from the media, the courts, and the legislatures. In addition to articles on family policy, family law, marriage and the family, family interaction and dynamics, and cultural diversity, the book addresses empirical assessments of internships and service learning activities in family-oriented courses, the effectiveness of various teaching strategies, including role-playing, classroom simulations, and Web-based assignments. Divided into three sections for ease of use, The Craft of Teaching About Families examines: Family Law and Family Policy how to build writing skills through the preparation of court briefs and policy memos how to use cooperative learning research teams to teach family law how to design better courses by understanding students’ perceptions of family policy issues how cooperative extension can help involve families in the policymaking process Family Dynamics how to develop a course in father-daughter relationships how to incorporate parenting education workshops into a parent-child relationship course how to prepare students to become competent multicultural educators how to develop a course on international families from a family strengths perspective how to develop a new framework for teaching family resources management Teaching Techniques in Family Science how to incorporate effective role-playing into the syllabus how to use small-group work to create a positive experience in the classroom how to educate future teachers about psychological abuse how to teach students about forgiveness toward those who have hurt them how to analyze the results of service-learning assignments in family diversity The Craft of Teaching About Families is an essential resource for professionals who teach about individuals and families at any level, in any setting—formal or informal.

Juvenile Delinquency is a comprehensive textbook that covers criminal behavior and justice for young people. Donald J. Shoemaker offers a simple and accessible text for students who are seeking a better understanding of crime and youth culture. With a strong emphasis on the importance of theory and practice, this updated edition of Juvenile Delinquency is a must read for understanding crime and youth culture./span

As they wrestle with today’s rules, regulations and high-stakes testing, our best teachers never forget that strong, positive relationships are at the core of student success. This book shows us how to build relationships with students, parents, and co-workers to create the kind of learning environments where all students achieve success.

Combining feminist legal theory with international human rights concepts, this book examines the presence, participation and treatment of children in a variety of contexts. Specifically, through comparing legal developments in the US with legal developments in countries where the views that children are separate from their families and potentially in need of state protection are more widely accepted. The authors address the role of religion in shaping attitudes about parental rights in the US, with particular emphasis upon the fundamentalist belief in natural lines of familial authority. Such beliefs have provoked powerful resistance in the US to human rights approaches that view the child as an independent rights holder and the state as obligated to proved services and protections that are distinctly child-centred. Calling for a rebalancing of relationships within the US family, to become more consistent with emerging human rights norms, this collection contains both theoretical debates about and practical approaches to granting positive rights to children.

Broad agreement exists among politicians and policymakers that the family is a critical institution of American life. Yet the role that the state should play with respect to family ties among citizens remains deeply contested. This controversy over the state's role undergirds a broad range of public policy debates: Does the state have a responsibility to help resolve conflicts between work and family? Should same-sex marriage be permitted? Should parents who receive welfare benefits be required to work? Yet while these individual policy issues are endlessly debated, the underlying theoretical question of the stance that the state should take with families remains largely unexplored. In The Supportive State, Maxine Eichner argues that government must take an active role in supporting families. She contends that the respect for human dignity at the root of America's liberal democratic understanding of itself requires that the state not only support individual freedom and equality--the goods generally considered as grounds for state action in liberal accounts. It must also support families, because it is through families that the caretaking and human development needs which must be satisfied in any flourishing society are largely met. Families' capacity to satisfy these needs, she demonstrates, is critically affected by the framework of societal institutions in which they function. In the "supportive state" model she develops, the state bears the responsibility for structuring societal institutions to support families in performing their caretaking and human development functions. Although not all family forms will further the important functions that warrant state support, she argues that a broad range will. Eichner's vigorous defense of the state's responsibility to enhance families' capacity for caretaking and human development stands as a sharp rejoinder to the widespread conservative belief that the state's role in family life must be diminished in order for families to flourish.