ABSTRACT
This chapter considers many policies to strengthen families and communities. It highlights growing evidence that investments beyond the school building can have a direct impact on educational outcomes, and suggests areas and methods for determining the cost-benefit implications of such investments. But human capital is not limited to what a child has at birth; it can also be enhanced or diminished by acquired health characteristics (such as adequate nutrition, or the lack thereof, exercise, or disease), each of which influences how an individual learns from the various educational institutions. If we want to improve the employment prospects of inner-city youth, for example, we consider whether improving their access to good housing might be a way of doing so. But if we want to improve the academic test scores of inner-city youth, we immediately consider which school compensatory programs would be most effective.
