Megan Tompkins-Stange
Assistant Professor, Gerald R. Ford School for Public Policy
Education, poverty, and socioeconomic mobility are closely linked. Children who grow up in families with low-incomes face more barriers to education than those that don’t – they attend under-resourced schools segregated by income and race, have fewer opportunities for enrichment, and struggle to pay for higher education. These inequities are rooted in both historical and current housing policies that segregate neighborhoods by class and race; school funding policies that result in more resources for wealthy school districts; and a system of higher education that was never designed to provide opportunity for all.
Despite these structural barriers, research has shown that education is a key stepping stone that can help individuals and families move out of poverty. Poverty Solutions and our affiliated scholars and partners work to reduce and help students overcome these obstacles,expanding educational opportunities so that all children have access to high-quality education and a better life.
By Karen Ann Kling, Jennifer Wixson, Laura Tuthill, and William D. Lopez
By William D. Lopez, Karen A. Kling, & Amanda Nothaft
By Natasha Pilkauskas and Katherine Michelmore
By Kelly Wilcox, Toko Oshio, and Jeff Kupperman
By Jordan Greene and Kristin Seefeldt
Journal of Adolescent Research
By Jennifer Erb-Downward and Michael Blakeslee
By Sara Heller
By Haotian Zheng, William Elliott, and Megan O’Brien
Journal of Poverty
By Haotian Zheng, Briana Starks, James Ellis, Megan O’Brien, and William Elliott
Sociology Mind
By Zibei Chen and William Elliott
Journal of Children and Poverty
By Zibei Chen, William Elliott, Kaipeng Wang, Anao Zhang, and Haotian Zheng
Children and Youth Services Review
By Anao Zhang, Zibei Chen, Kaipeng Wang, William Elliott, and So’phelia Morrow
Sociology Mind
By Matthew Diemer, Aixa Marchand, and Rashmita Mistry
The Journal of Youth and Adolescence
By Sruthi Naraharisetti, Natalie Peterson, and Jennifer Erb-Downward
By Kirsten Dara Hill, Karen Thomas-Brown, and LaShorage Shaffer
Multicultural Perspectives
By Jennifer Erb-Downward and Payton Watt
By Eleanor Martin, Christina Weiland, and Lindsay C. Page
By Jennifer Erb-Downward
By Jennifer Erb-Downward and Michael Evangelist
By Natasha Pilkauskas, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Jane Waldfogel
By Deborah A. Phillips, Anna D. Johnson, Christina Weiland, and Jane E. Hutchison
By Christine Robinson, Trina Shanks, and Patrick Meehan
Poverty Solutions supports several projects that aim to promote a better understanding of the causes and consequences of homelessness and identify potential points of intervention.
Visit the Data Tools page for an interactive map of chronic absenteeism rates among students experiencing homelessness by Michigan school district.
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity | Jun. 12, 2024
NBC 10 Boston | May. 21, 2024
Second Wave Media | Apr. 30, 2024