This landmark volume commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the Children's Defense Fund, which has been an uncompromising champion of American youth for all of those years. Yet the book looks not to the past but at our current circumstances--and at the challenges we must meet now and in the future on behalf of our young people. 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. An invaluable survey of the conditions facing American youth--and a call to action at the local, state, and national levels--"Improving the Odds for America's Children" is an urgent, informative, and inspired volume that addresses shortcomings and challenges we cannot afford to ignore. Following the Foreword (George Miller) and the Introduction (Kathleen McCartney, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, and Laurie B. Forcier), this book contains seven sections. The first section, Prenatal and Infant Health and Development, contains the following chapters: (1) Health Care for Children: Forty Years of Health Policy (Sara Rosenbaum and Partow Zomorrodian); and (2) A Healthy Start Before and After Birth: Applying the Biology of Adversity to Build the Capabilities of Caregivers (Jack P. Shonkof). The second section, Early Childhood Care and Education, contains the following chapters: (3) A Great Beginning: Ensuring Early Opportunities for America's Young Children (Joan Lombardi); and (4) A Future for Preschool in the United States: Integrating Innovations from Global Perspectives (Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Kathleen McCartney). The third section, School Reform, contains the following chapters: (5) The Past as Prologue to the Future: Envisioning School Reform for the Twenty-First Century (Deborah Jewell-Sherman); and (6) Building a Twenty-First-Century School System: Creating a Teaching Profession and Multiple Student Pathways (Jal Mehta and Robert B. Schwartz). The fourth section, The Achievement Gap, contains the following chapters: (7) Confronting the Achievement Gap: A District-Level Perspective (Jerry D. Weast); and (8) Rising Inequality and the School Performance of Low- and High-Income Children (Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane). The fifth section, Vulnerable Children, contains the following chapters: (9) Beyond Child Protection: Helping All Families Provide Adequate Parenting (Michael S. Wald); and (10) Child Protection and Child Welfare: Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Children (Jane Waldfogel). The sixth section, Juvenile Justice, contains the following chapters: (11) The Wheel Turns: Recreating a System of Justice for Juveniles (Robert G. Schwartz); and (12) Using Scientific Research to Transform Juvenile Justice Policy and Practice: A Modest Success Story and Some Suggestions for the Next Four Decades (Laurence Steinberg). The seventh section, Child Poverty, contains the following chapters: (13) Policies to Reduce Poverty: Supporting Family Income as an Investment in Children's Futures (Arloc Sherman, Robert Greenstein, and Sharon Parrott); and (14) The State of Research on Children and Families in Poverty: Past, Present, and Future Empirical Avenues of Promise (Eric Dearing). The afterword is written by Marian Wright Edelman. Contains notes, acknowledgments, sections about the editors and contributors, and an index.