Baton Rouge, La — Nationally-recognized Distinguished Professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine, Greg J. Duncan will speak to the Baton Rouge community at a Distinguished Speaker Series session hosted by Academic Distinction Fund (ADF) on Tuesday, June 26, 2012, at the Renaissance Baton Rouge Hotel, 7000 Bluebonnet Blvd. The event is free and open to the public. The presentation is entitled "Decreasing Poverty: Increasing Children's Life Changes."

ADF is a major collaborator among schools, businesses, and the community and acts as a catalyst for private sector leadership in advancing public education in East Baton Rouge Public School System (EBRPSS). The program check-in is from 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. and the presentation will be from4:30 – 6:00 p.m. Pre-registration is recommended.

With a 1974 doctorate degree in economics, Duncan spent the first two decades of his career at the University of Michigan working on, and ultimately directing, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data collection project, which, in 2001, was named by the National Science Foundation to be one of the 50 most significant NSF-funded projects in the organization’s history. Beginning in the late 1980s, Duncan engaged in a number of interdisciplinary research networks and began to focus on the impacts of family and neighborhood conditions on children’s cognitive and behavioral development. He coauthored Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children (2007) and co-edited Neighborhood Poverty (1997), Consequences of Growing Up Poor (1997) and, most recently, Whither Opportunity: Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children's Life Chances (2011). He was President of the Midwest Economics Association in 2004, the Population Association of America in 2008 and the Society for Research in Child Development (2009-11). Duncan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

The ADF Distinguished Speaker Series is designed to provide critical information on the latest early childhood development research and best practices. The series is the first of its kind in East Baton Rouge Parish to address issues facing infants and children, ages zero-to-five, says ADF Executive Director Martis Jones, Ph.D. 

The ADF Distinguished Speaker Series is directed to East Baton Rouge Parish teachers, pre-K providers and administrators, parents and families, business leaders, education stakeholders, nonprofit organizations and public officials who ultimately impact all prekindergarten children in East Baton Rouge Parish and beyond.

The research-based presentations engage early childhood experts to address what it takes for children to be successful in kindergarten and first grade, regardless of their socio-economic and racial backgrounds. 

Dr. Duncan’s research shows income inequality has increased over the past 30 years and so too has the gap between the educational attainments of children growing up in rich and poor families. He says these gaps contribute to America’s having fallen behind other countries in educating its children and that public schools have become more segregated by income, which reduces school quality for poor children in a number of ways. Duncan will discuss promising policy responses to these problems to include early direct investments in children, proven school reforms and income supports for working families.