Improving the odds for America's children : future directions in policy and practice / Kathleen McCartney, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Laurie B. Forcier, editors.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-254) and index.

Foreword / by Congressman George Miller -- Introduction / Kathleen McCartney, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, and Laurie B. Forcier -- Prenatal and infant health development. Health care for children : forty years of health policy / Sara Rosenbaum and Partow Zomorrodian ; A healthy start before and after birth : applying the biology of adversity to build the capabilities of caregivers / Jack P. Shonkoff -- Early childhood care and education. A great beginning : ensuring early opportunities for America's young children / Joan Lombardi ; A future for preschool in the United States : integrating innovations from global perspectives / Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Kathleen McCartney -- School reform. The past as prologue to the future : envisioning school reform for the twenty-first century / Deborah Jewell-Sherman ; Building a twenty-first-century school system : creating a teaching profession and multiple student pathways / Jal Mehta and Robert B. Schwartz -- The achievement gap. Confronting the achievement gap : a district-level perspective / Jerry D. Weast ; Rising inequality and the school performance of low- and high-income children / Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane -- Vulnerable children. Beyond child protection : helping all families provide adequate parenting / Michael S. Wald ; Child protection and child welfare : meeting the needs of vulnerable children / Jane Waldfogel -- Juvenile justice. The wheel turns : recreating a system of justice for juveniles / Robert G. Schwartz ; Using scientific research to transform juvenile justice policy and practice : a modest success story and some suggestions for the next four decades / Laurence Steinberg -- Child poverty. Policies to reduce poverty : supporting family income as an investment in children's futures / Arloc Sherman, Robert Greenstein, and Sharon Parrott ; The state of research on children and families in poverty : past, present, and future empirical avenues of promise / Eric Dearing -- Afterword / by Marian Wright Edelman.

"The book examines critical issues--prenatal and infant health and development, early child care and education, school reform, the achievement gap, vulnerable children, juvenile justice, and child poverty--and highlights crucial practical and policy measures we need to consider and undertake if we are to better serve American children."--Publisher's Web site.