Contributors Acknowledgments Foreword Part 1 Overview1 Introduction: The American Dream, Then and Now Part 2 The Developing Child and Adolescent2 Lessons from Neuroscience Research for Understanding Causal Links Between Family and Neighborhood Characteristics and Educational Outcomes 3 The Nature and Impact of Early Achievement Skills, Attention Skills, and Behavior Problems 4 Middle and High School Skills, Behaviors, Attitudes,and Curriculum Enrollment, and Their Consequences 5 The Widening Academic Achievement Gap Between the Rich and the Poor: New Evidence and Possible Explanations 6 Inequality in Postsecondary Education7 Educational Expectations and AttainmentPart 3 The Family8 Educational Mobility in the United States Since the 1930s 9 How Is Family Income Related to Investments in Children’s Learning? 10 Parenting, Time Use, and Disparities in Academic Outcomes 11 Family-Structure Instability and Adolescent Educational Outcomes: A Focus on Families with Stepfathers Part 4 Neighborhoods12 Converging Evidence for Neighborhood Effects on Children’s Test Scores: An Experimental, Quasi-Experimental, and Observational Comparison 13 Unpacking Neighborhood Influences on Education Outcomes: Setting the Stage for Future Research Part 5 Labor Markets14 The Effects of Local Employment Losses on Children’s Educational Achievement 15 How Does Parental Unemployment Affect Children’s Educational Performance? Part 6 Schools16 The Role of Family, School, and Community Characteristics in Inequality in Education and Labor-Market Outcomes 17 Year-by-Year and Cumulative Impacts of Attending a High-Mobility Elementary School on Children’s Mathematics Achievement in Chicago, 1995 to 2005 18 The Effect of School Neighborhoods on Teachers’ Career Decisions 19 Crime and the Production of Safe Schools 20 Immigrants and Inequality in Public Schools 21 School Desegregation and the Black-White Test Score Gap 22 The Challenges of Finding Causal Links Between Family Educational Practices and Schooling Outcomes 23 It May Not Take a Village: Increasing Achievement Among the Poor 24 Understanding the Context for Existing Reform and Research Proposals 25 Intervening to Improve the Educational Outcomes of Students in Poverty: Lessons from Recent Work in High-Poverty Schools Index