During the last few years, East-Europeans, predominantly Romanians, have become the second largest cultural minority in Catalonia (Spain). Spanish educational institutions now have students from more than twenty different cultures. This paper focuses on the educational background and the factors which characterize the educational experience of…

In 1974, the United States Supreme Court ruled in "Lau v. Nichols" that 1,800 Chinese-speaking children in the San Francisco public schools were entitled to English-language instruction or other support to help them understand what was happening in their classrooms. Thirty-six years later, state and local responsibilities to public…

Three decades since the onset of HIV/AIDS, 33.2 million people worldwide are infected and prevalence in Kenya is on the rise. This paper contributes to discussions about HIV/AIDS education and draws on the health promotion approach and the emancipatory theory of Paulo Freire. Freire argued that through dialogue people unveil their world. The…

In this paper, we describe a model for systematically improving the mathematics preparation of elementary teachers, one lesson at a time. We begin by identifying a serious obstacle for teacher educators: the absence of mechanisms for developing a shareable knowledge base for teacher preparation. We propose our model as a way to address this…

The implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has had many positive effects on students in schools today. The results have been less positive, however, for high-achieving students. Teachers often focus their instruction on students who need the most help, leaving little time to meet the academic or emotional needs of gifted students.…

This article examines Reading Recovery as a microcosm for issues related to race and access. Tenets of critical race theory are presented to explore how racial biases are systemic in our ways of being, teaching, and conducting research. Specifically, I present data for African American children involved in Reading Recovery in one Midwestern…

This study focused on the planning, implementation and evaluation of a character-based school culture (CBSC) project in Taiwan. The project integrated the principles of justice, caring and developmental discipline and was influenced by several well-known American models of character education programmes. The CBSC project was conducted in a…

This Issue Brief provides estimates of the number and percentage of homeschooled students in the United States in 2007 and compares these estimates to those from 1999 and 2003. From 1999 to 2007, the number of homeschooled students in the United States increased, as did the homeschooling rate. In 2007, parents homeschooled their children for a…

Increasing standardized test scores in reading and math is of high importance to the California Department of Education to meet requirements mandated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act of 2001. More research is needed to understand the best ways to improve tests scores to meet concerns of the NCLB act. The purpose of the study was to evaluate…

This article discusses the Bush administration's aim to improve mathematics education through a suggested reading model. The White House is focusing on research to shape how students across the country are taught the most basic mathematical concepts. This undertaking would be modeled on the government's action toward reading, which includes the…

This report highlights the ongoing discussions between the believers of "online learning" vs. the "not enough proven research" for K-8 cyber schooling. Discussing successful processes and operations in states around the country, the author focuses on Maryland and, in particular, Baltimore schools, and reports that very little…

There is a disproportional representation of African American students in special education in the United States. Minimal use of differentiated instruction is a common reason for overrepresentation of minority students in special education. I conducted an action research study with elementary school teachers involving differentiated instruction.…

This article addresses an enduring concern in the sociology of education: how social class differences are reproduced through schooling. In particular it focuses on the functioning of pedagogy in this regard. The article presents a model that elucidates the inner logic of pedagogy in order to reveal the structuring of inequality with respect to…

This article unveils the largely unknown theories and practices of "cultural reattachment Africentric education leaders," because many people of African descent are now choosing to reattach (in whole or in part) to aspects of certain African cultures (such as Wolof or Akan). The article offers a brief background of African-centered…

Over the past several decades, researchers, politicians, and corporate leaders have focused reform efforts on the size of educational contexts. Hundreds of billions of public and private dollars have been invested to reduce the size and scope of both classrooms and schools (Lee & Ready, 2007). Unlike many education reforms, these downsizing…