Poverty, Race and Inequality

Independent Report Sees Progress for State's Welfare Families After Reform

New Book Shows What Government Can Do to Fight Inequality

Crossing the Class and Color Lines--New book on Chicago's Gautreaux Program

Chicago Housing's "Hidden War"

Panel Study to Track Impact of Illinois Welfare Reform

Northwestern study finds that poverty and early learning opportunities — not race — account for the gap in IQ scores between blacks and whites

Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies

New Study Says Work Pays But Many Welfare Recipients Still Face Hardship (See other reports).

Study Sees Trouble Ahead for Children in Welfare System
(Read the working paper).

Child Welfare Discourse Fails to Factor in Racial Bias

Medicaid and Food Stamps Essential in Transition from Welfare to Work

Panel Discussion Urges Children's Policy Based on Up-to-Date Research

New Policy Brief for Three City Study of Welfare, Children & Families: "What welfare recipients know about the new rules and what they have to say about them"

Comer School Reform Project improves both academics and behavior

Community Development

ABCD Institute publishes new workbook on newspapers and neighborhoods

Law and Justice Studies

Northwestern Study Shows Great Strides in Community Policing Program

Northwestern study finds progress in Chicago's community policing program

New book offers in-depth look at "Community Policing, Chicago Style"

Northwestern study finds major concerns about crime motivates high citizen participation in Chicago's Community Policing Program

Communications, Media and Public Opinion

IPR hosts Polls, Policy, and the Future of American Democracy Conference

Business, Work, and Government

Economist explains why more consumers are going broke

IPR Distinguished Public Policy Lectures

Rebecca Blank, Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; former Dean, Ford School of Public Policy, and former Co-Director, National Poverty Center, University of Michigan, “Why Does Inequality Matter, and What Should We Do About It?”

David T. Ellwood, Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University and Ron Haskins, Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Senior Consultant, Annnie E. Casey Foundation speak on "Ten Years After Welfare Reform: Who Was Right, What Have We Learned, and Where Do We Need to Go Next?"

Heidi Hartmann, President of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, speaks on "The Earnings Gap and Women's Long-Term Economic Security"

Robert B. Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, speaks on "America's Real Job Problem"

Grover J. Whitehurst, U.S. Department of Education, speaks on "Making Education Evidence-Based: Principles, Pragmatics, and Politics"

John McKnight speaks on Regenerating Community

Rep. Jan Schakowsky speaks on citizen activism

Council of Economic Adviser speaks at Northwestern

Congressman John Porter lectures at Northwestern

Former U.S. Senator Paul Simon lectures at Northwestern

IPR in the News

(3/19/08)

Christian Science Monitor - "Why good students don't reach college"
IPR Faculty Fellow James Rosenbaum is quoted in an article about the high number of Chicago Public School students who, lacking college-bound knowledge and advice, fail to even apply for suitable colleges.

(3/10/08)

The Washington Post - Smaller Classes Don't Close Learning Gap, Study Finds
A study by IPR Faculty Associate Spyros Konstantopoulos found that decreasing class size may increase achievement on average for all types of students, but it does not appear to reduce the gap between high and low achievers in the same class.

Also appeared in:

Orlando Sentinel - February 26, 2008
Does Class Size Matter?

Education Week - February 21, 2008
Class-Size Reductions Seen of Limited Help on Achievement Gap

(2/28/08)

Sun Sentinel - Kennedy Support Helps Obama with Hispanics
Political scientist Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, an IPR faculty fellow, examines how Ted Kennedy's endorsement helps Obama improve his name recognition with Latino voters.

(2/4/08)

Scientific American - Super Tuesday: Markets Predict Outcome Better Than Polls
In this article on the Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM), IPR Faculty Fellow and economist Charles Manski is cited for his critique of the efficacy of prediction markets. Manski created a mathematical model showing that these markets are not particularly accurate tools for prediction.

(1/10/08)

Education Week - Gauging the Quality of School Leadership
IPR Faculty Fellow James Spillane argues that to achieve a better measure of leadership quality and ability, one should study all those in school leadership roles--not just principals.

(1/3/08)

Courant.Com - Academia Taking Long Looks at Facebook, MySpace
This article cites a study by IPR Faculty Associate Eszter Hargittai, who studies the social and policy implications of information technologies, into how the digital divide pervades modern online social networks.

(12/16/07)

JSOnline - Washington Notebook
IPR faculty fellow and economist Greg Duncan explains the benefits of Milwaukee's successful New Hope program to "make work pay" for poor working Americans and their families.

(7/16/09)

The Wall Street Journal - "How Accurate are Juries?"
A recent study by IPR Faculty Fellow Bruce Spencer found that in a set of 271 cases, juries gave wrong verdicts in at least one out of eight cases.

(6/7/07)

Economist.com - New Model Police
From his research on crime and policing in Chicago, IPR Faculty Fellow Wesley G. Skogan explains why better policing is one reason for the ongoing crime drop in America's biggest cities.

(6/4/07)

USA Today - Gas prices are budget busters for many
IPR Faculty Fellow Juan Onésimo Sandoval comments on how rising gas prices affect working class families.

(5/17/07)

ABC News - "Immigration Burden or Boom for the Tax Rolls"
IPR Faculty Fellow Juan Onésimo Sandoval discusses a possible financial upside to immigration reform.

(5/15/07)

WBEZ Chicago Public Radio
IPR Faculty Associate Mary Pattillo discusses her book, Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City, with Eight Forty-Eight's Richard Steele.
Click here to listen to the program

(5/6/07)

Chicago Tribune - "Broken Windows" and Crime
IPR Faculty Fellow Wesley G. Skogan gives his take in a Chicago Tribune editorial on the groundbreaking changes produced by the city's "Broken Windows" strategy of community policing.

(7/9/07)

610 WIOD Radio Interview - A recent study by IPR Faculty Fellow Bruce Spencer found that in a set of 271 cases, juries gave wrong verdicts in at least one out of eight cases.

(10/30/06)

Scientific American - "Lonely People Wake Up with a Hormonal Boost" ABC News - "Don't Go to Bed Lonely"
IPR Faculty Fellow Emma Adam, a developmental psychologist, discusses her new study showing that elderly adults who go to bed lonely, sad, or overwhelmed receive a boost of the hormone cortisol when they awake. This energizes them to meet the demands of their day.

(10/31/06)

Chicago Tribune - "North Korea and the new realpolitik." IPR Faculty Fellow Monica Prasad, a sociologist, explains how adopting an approach of equals to nuclear states through the enactment and enforcement of treaties and commitments can help to prevent nuclear proliferation.

(10/17/06)

United Press International - "Study: Race less important if faring well." IPR Faculty Associate Dennis Chong, a political scientist, recently published a study, with IPR graduate student Dukhong Kim, showing that racial minorities who experience equal opportunities and relatively higher economic status tend to place less emphasis on racial group concerns in their evaluations of public policies. 

(10/10/06)

Chicago Tribune - "Stress and health -- is there a link?,"* IPR Faculty Fellow Thomas McDade, an anthropologist, is interviewed about his work on minimally-invasive blood-spot samples and how this is providing new insight into the links between stress, health, and social environments.  *Registration required.

9/20/06)

WBEZ 91.5 FM Chicago - IPR Faculty Fellow Jennifer Richeson, a social psychologist, talks with Richard Steele about the research that led to her being named a 2006 MacArthur Fellow.
Click here to listen to interview

(10/23/05)

Chicago Tribune - "Suffering and resilience; Chicago formula could be used for exiles of storm." IPR Faculty Fellow Greg J. Duncan writes in the Chicago Tribune about how the lessons of Gautreaux in Chicago could serve poor New Orleans families displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

(10/2/05)

Chicago Tribune - "From Extreme Crisis Comes Clarity"
In this Chicago Tribune editorial, IPR Faculty Fellow Jeff Manza discusses the generosity of Americans in the face of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and how these voluntary efforts provide but a tiny fraction of the total amount that will be needed to recover from the disaster.

(9/25/05)

The New York Times - "An Uprooted Underclass, Under the Microscope"
In this article about the possible effects of relocating New Orleans' displaced poor after Hurricane Katrina, IPR Faculty Fellow James E. Rosenbaum cites lessons on relocation from his research on the Gautraux program in Chicago.

(9/25/05)

Chicago Tribune - "Tipping Scales in Court"
In this Chicago Tribune editorial, John Heinz, IPR faculty associate and professor of law, points out that while equality of the law is often proclaimed, in practice justice for all amounts to justice for those who can afford it.

(9/2/05)

The Chronicle of Higher Education - "Private Schools Boost Chances of Getting a Degree for Poorly Prepared Students"
A study by IPR Faculty Fellow James A. Rosenbaum and graduate student Jennifer L. Stephan indicates that students who are poorly prepared for college seem to have a higher chance of completing their degrees if they attend private colleges or universities.

(8/22/05)

MSNBC - "Choice of Childcare Might Affect Children's Development"
According to a study by IPR Faculty Fellow Raquel Bernal and Michael Keane of Yale University, three- to six-year-olds of welfare-to-work mothers in informal daycare arrangements scored lower on cognitive tests compared with children in formal daycare environments or at home with their moms.

(2/20/05)

Chicago Tribune - "Strategy of Hyperbole Hits Crisis Proportions"
IPR's acting director, Jeff Manza, discusses the common use of "crisis rhetoric" to sell political ideas.

(1/19/05)

"115 FACULTY RECOGNIZED FOR DISTINCTIVE OUTSIDE AWARDS"
President Henry S. Bienen and Provost Lawrence B. Dumas honored 115 faculty members, including seven IPR faculty members, who have brought distinction to Northwestern by their important recognition from societies and agencies outside the University.

(4/11/04)

Chicago Tribune - "Society Punishes Ex-convicts for Life"
IPR Faculty Fellows Devah Pager and Jeff Manza discuss how millions of ex-offenders are denied the most basic right of citizenship in a democratic society: the right to vote.

(3/17/04)

Education Week - "Weaving Webs"
IPR Faculty Fellow Jim Spillane talks about his distributed leadership research project, one of the largest ever conducted on the subject.

(2/11/04)

Chicago Tribune - "Professor Leads the Charge on Leadership Studies"
IPR Faculty Fellow Alice Eagly is interviewed on her research on changes in gender roles and leadership.

(12/9/03)

Northwestern News - "Project Will Help Exonerated Prisoners"
EVANSTON, Ill -- David Protess -- the Northwestern University journalism professor whose investigations with his Medill School of Journalism students have helped free eight men wrongfully convicted of murder - plans to launch a pilot project to help exonerated prisoners rebuild their lives outside of prison.

(10/4/03)

Los Angeles Times - "Connerly's Unreal World"
Editorial cites Devah Pager's research, which found that employers are more apt to interview and hire white applicants with criminal records over black applicants without criminal records. She is an assistant professor of sociology and IPR faculty fellow.

(9/28/03)

Chicago Tribune - "Fed up with partisan politics? Welcome back to good old days"
In his editorial, Jeffery Jenkins, assistant professor of political science and IPR faculty fellow, makes the case that the high levels of partisanship we are seeing in Congress today are nothing new.

(9/28/03)

Chicago Tribune - "Schools Toying with Test Results"
Bruce Spencer, professor of statistics and IPR faculty fellow, is quoted in an article discussing how education officials are using "margin-of-error" formulas to inflate students' test score results.

(9/4/03)

The Wall Street Journal - "Racial Discrimination is Still at Work"
Devah Pager, assistant professor of sociology and IPR faculty fellow, is interviewed about her findings that white job applicants were more likely to be interviewed and hired over black applicants with the same or better qualifications.

(9/11/03)

The Wall Street Journal - "Fear of Bias Suits May Be Affecting Hiring Decisions"
In a second article, Devah Pager responds to a reader's "rational explanation" of this racial bias in hiring (discrimination suits rather than racial hatred), noting that such justifications are based on false assumptions.

(8/22/03)

The Washington Post - "Solving The Drug Dilemma"
Burton Weisbrod, professor of economics and IPR faculty fellow, suggests a new economic model for pharmaceutical pricing and R&D in this editorial.

(8/9/03)

Chicago Tribune - "Is workplace better if she's the boss?"
Alice Eagly, professor of psychology and IPR faculty fellow, was interviewed on her meta-analysis comparing the transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles of men and women.

(7/28/03)

WBEZ91.5FM - "Partisanship and Institutions"
Jeff Jenkins, assistant professor of political science and IPR faculty fellow, participated in a discussion on partisanship and institutions.

IPR Administration

Northwestern Researcher Named Center for Poverty Research Director

IPR and Sociology Department inaugurate Chicago and Urban Studies Workshop Series

IPR Director elected president of Gerotological Society of America

The Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research becomes the Institute for Policy Research

Northwestern University and the University of Chicago bring together leading researchers in a major new poverty center

 Miscellaneous

IPR Launches New Series of Policy Briefs

Summer internships for NU undergraduates
(Download program flyer in PDF format)

May 5, 2001: IPR Hosts Conference on the Effects of Incarceration on Children and Families
(Download conference flyer)
(Download press release)

 

May 18, 2001: Conference to Explore U.S. Welfare State in Comparative Perspective
(Download conference flyer)