In this chapter, we argue that the timing of societal events in an individual’s life plays a major role in shaping that life through interacting developmental processes at multiple levels. We focus on classic research by Elder showing how two such events in historical proximity dramatically altered the lives of California children who were born at opposite ends of the 1920s, 1920–21 and 1928–29, the Great Depression of the 1930s followed by World War II (1941–45) and the Korean War (1950–53). We employ insights from both Elder’s cohort historical life course approach and developmental science including recent work on developmental neuroscience to understand the life-long impact of exposure to events that occur at different times in life, and the mechanisms through which these exposures may influence development, as well as experiences that may provide turning points in development.

Education is a powerful determinant of young people’s futures and a key developmental context of their daily lives, but education is changing. The recent restructuring and globalization of the economy have increased the lifelong benefits of higher education in the US and many other developed countries, which in turn has created downward pressure on earlier stages of the educational systems. This chapter describes economic restructuring, its effects on returns to higher education and curricular differentiation, and what these effects mean for inequality in a globalizing and diversifying world. It then shifts attention to different kinds of policy and programmatic responses to inequality in a changing educational context, focusing on strategies to change schools, change curricula in schools, change connections between schools and families, and change the psychology of young people. The goal is to explore ways that developmentally informed, culturally responsive, and multilevel solutions can be developed to promote equality of opportunity and educational equity.