The Effectiveness of Intervention Programs on Educational Outcomes of Children Growing Up in Poverty

This research project examines the effectiveness of intervention programs on educational outcomes of children growing up in poverty. Poverty is an issue containing many different layers and dimensions, meaning it has impacts on almost every aspect of a person living in poverty’s life, including their access to basic necessities, healthcare, employment, transportation, and safety. Consequently, poverty also affects a child’s educational attainment and achievement. Inadequate educational attainment and achievement at a young age can impact the future of an individual, such as financial literacy, employment opportunities, and access to a college education beyond high school. One of the major ways to combat the effects of poverty on educational performance is implementing intervention programs designed to minimize the repercussions of living in poverty. Data collected through program webpages, evaluation reports, and surveys of eleven different intervention programs, like the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting and branches of Kentucky Strengthening Families, were examined. The factors analyzed included their focuses, the ages they target, their goals, how many families are involved, how they improve student performance, and how much they cost. This allowed for the determination of the most cost-effective intervention methods and programs. After the analyses were completed, it was determined that there was a lack of programs explicitly targeting poverty and its effects and programs seemed to focus on poverty’s impacts only implicitly