In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty in his State of the Union address. Fifty years later, how have American children fared? The Children's Defense Fund's new report The State of America's Children 2014 finds that child poverty has reached record levels, and children of color are disproportionately poor. The report is a comprehensive compilation and analysis of the most recent and reliable national and state-by-state data on population, poverty, family structure, family income, health, nutrition, early childhood development, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and gun violence.

According to Expanding Education and Workforce Opportunities Through Digital Badges, a report from the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Mozilla Foundation, digital badges offer students the opportunity to pave their own learning pathways and allow employers to verify necessary workforce skills. The report defines digital badges as “credentials that represent skills, interests, and achievements earned by an individual through specific projects, programs, courses, or other activities.” This report explores digital badges and how they can be used to improve student learning and outcomes, as well as expand vocational and interest-based skills for learners of all age. Read the executive summary or download thefull report.

Children who are proficient in reading by fourth grade are more likely to graduate from high school and to be economically successful as adults. A recent KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot from the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds that although reading proficiency rates have improved over the past decade, large disparities in proficiency levels still exist between fourth-graders from low-income families and their higher-income peers. This brief report examines those disparities and offers recommendations to communities and policymakers to support early reading.