In this article, the author proposes that, aside from modified instructional strategies, cultural mediation by secondary teachers on behalf of minority students is the key to school adjustment and academic achievement of language minority students in secondary schools. Cultural mediation can be defined as a process of planned intervention in which…

School transition is a critical life event for many children. However, the effects of school transition on children's stress experiences reported in the literature have been inconsistent. The present study with 564 third- to sixth-graders compared the changes in experienced stress level and in somatic and psychological symptoms during the…

This study examines the effects of the Fast Track program, which is a multicomponent, intensive intervention for children with early-onset conduct problems and continues from 1st grade through high school. Prior research has shown that Fast Track produces small positive effect sizes on children's social and behavioral outcomes at the end of 1st…

This study assessed the hypothesis that popularity in adolescence takes on a twofold role, marking high levels of concurrent adaptation but predicting increases over time in both positive and negative behaviors sanctioned by peer norms. Multimethod, longitudinal data, on a diverse community sample of 185 adolescents (13 to 14 years), addressed…

The authors examine the influence of neighborhood characteristics on the academic outcomes of children in middle childhood. Prior research has examined structural features of the community and has evaluated their associations with youth outcomes (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Sealand, 1993; Kowaleski-Jones, 2000). Other research has related…

Judgments about the quality of students' experience of school generally focus on their academic performance and indeed this is an important indicator but closer attention needs to be paid to equally important, more broadly based outcomes that include social/emotional adjustment as they also are shown to impact on students' lives at, and beyond…

Interest in home-school communication has paid little attention, to date, to the experiences of English as a second language (ESL) parents. This article examines recent Chinese immigrant parents' and Canadian teachers' perspectives of ESL learning presented at Parents' Night. On the basis of observations of three annual Parents' Nights, interviews…

This article uses a resources and demands approach to examine the extent to which work, community, and parenting resources and demands are related to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems and grades in school. The analysis is based on data from 489 married two-earner couples and adolescents aged 10 to 17 interviewed for the…

The UK reading literacy data from the OECD PISA 2000 study are analysed using multilevel methods. The main analyses focus on the composite reading literacy scale resulting from the study and the explanatory variables used are 16 of the scales derived from answers given to the pupil questionnaire administered as part of the survey, together with…

This paper discusses the social and cultural dimensions of the educational experiences of Arab-Australian students. It seeks to explore the cultural attitudes and the social experiences of Arab-Australian secondary school students from two schools situated in Melbourne's northern region. The paper seeks to examine how Arab-Australian students and…

This article presents the findings of a study hypothesizing that school discipline problems are a maladaptive response to the demand of the school environment as a result of deficits in the area of locus of control and attributional style. The findings indicate that an external orientation of locus of control and a passive pattern of attribution…

What difference does education make for young adults' engagement in politics and social issues? This study is part of the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) project on "Measuring the Social Outcomes of Learning" (SOL). It discusses relevant international research, with special attention to studies in the Nordic…

The alternative education field lacks a common definition and has a major divide between the differing philosophies of alternative programs; little empirical evidence is available to identify the components necessary to create effective alternative educational programs. Tremendous growth in the availability of alternative programs in the United…

Students with vision impairments in Singapore are educated in segregated settings from an early age. On completing primary school these students continue their education in mainstream secondary school settings. This transition requires considerable adjustment on the part of students with vision impairments. The present research explored the social…

Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are a lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. People with autistic spectrum disorders experience difficulties with social interaction, social communication and imagination--known as the "triad of impairments". The mainstream school environment…