The study examines the extent to which the policies and enforcement practices of 'Education Welfare Investment Priority Zone Plan' have fulfilled the promise of the initial idea to satisfy the needs of economically disadvantaged children. Since 2003,...
The study examines the extent to which the policies and enforcement practices of 'Education Welfare Investment Priority Zone Plan' have fulfilled the promise of the initial idea to satisfy the needs of economically disadvantaged children. Since 2003, the Education Welfare Investment Priority project has strived to provide equal educational opportunities and resources for the disadvantaged children by prioritizing more desperate zone and its selected schools within inner city. In accordance to the plan, authors analyze the related variables and their structural relationship influencing the school-life satisfaction of students in Education Welfare Priority project area. To serve this purpose, the data from the Korean Educational Development Institute is used to see whether it fits for the structural equation model derived from related theories and previous researches. As a result, it has been found that disadvantaged children are more likely to satisfied with school's educational and welfare services when exposed to variables such as parents' involvement, self-paced learning ability, self-confidence, and expectation for schools. It is also found that the influences of SES on parents' involvement, self-paced learning ability, self-confidence are mitigated when the moderator of intensive support is considered in the model. These results show that the project effectively serves as a facilitator to get the caring variables activated so that schools can become satisfactory and meaningful places for the disadvantaged students to overcome the obstacles of poverty.