A study of 4,455 school districts found African-American students were about 2.4 times more likely to be identified as mildly mentally retarded and about 1.5 times more likely to be identified as seriously emotionally disturbed than their non-African-American peers. Economic and demographic variables were significant predictors of disproportionate…

Contrasts the rhetoric and implementation of common schools (tax-supported, free public education) in 19th-century Boston with some subsequent educational discrimination. The Boston Public School system established intermediate schools and ungraded classes as a means of instructing illiterate immigrant children. It rapidly became a system of…

The verdict in the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) case undermined the concept of educational equity by equating it with sameness. Testimony was excluded that revealed bureaucratic processes creating new inequities: overemphasis on test preparation and manipulation of students' grade level designations to artificially improve…

A study of 115 Hispanic and 119 Anglo fifth-grade students and 12 teachers investigated teachers' nomination rates of Hispanic and Anglo students to gifted-and-talented programs. Results indicated that ethnicity was a factor in teachers' nomination rate and that differences in rates were more pronounced between Hispanic and Anglo females.…

This article describes stereotypes of gifted children that generate negative attitudes. It clarifies how stereotypes have been used to exclude children from programming and how equity issues are often ignored in identification. The exploration of these issues resulted in the development of a "gifted game", created as a project by undergraduate…

Space counts in college. "Brown" and the many higher education cases leading to that important legal decision were about place: where Negro schoolchildren would be allowed to attend school or whether Black students could attend white law schools. The issue of place has also been contested in other college settings, such as whether institutions can…

This study reports the results of research with respect to policy and diversity, as part of a larger case study of a Canadian university-college. The study details an examination of policy discourses as a vehicle for institutional change and provides insights into the everyday experiences of educators, their perspectives on policy and change, and…

Teachers inherit and experience historical and current identificatory racial meanings born of social inequality that inform their teaching. Such meanings may undergird White teachers' lower expectations for Black youth as opposed to those of Black teachers. In accord with other studies, this inquiry addresses the invisibility of Whiteness as…

The article describes trends in social class segregation between British secondary schools from 1984 to 1999, and includes "home international" comparisons of trends in England, Wales and Scotland. The analysis is based on comparable youth cohort datasets: the England and Wales Youth Cohort Study and the Scottish School Leavers' Survey.…

Using historical data on applications and admissions to medical school between 1929 and 1984, this study tested the hypothesis that medical school admissions committees discriminated against women. The findings suggest that, as far back as 1929, the low representation of women was primarily due to socialization-based occupational choice. (JDH)

Summarizes a study that reveals that light-skin-toned and European-looking Mexican Americans receive about 1.5 more years of schooling that darker and more Indian-looking Mexican Americans. Differences in schooling by phenotype persisted with and without controls for other factors. Includes tables of statistical data. (MJP)

This article posits that increasing minority teachers in gifted and talented (GT) programs will lead to an increase of minority students in GT programs. Ways to recruit and prepare minority teachers are discussed, as are multicultural and bilingual options for GT programs. The need for evaluation data is stressed. (Contains references.) (CR)

Explores ways in which public schools, which are supposed to be universally accessible moral communities, engage in patterns of systematic exclusion. Presents three case studies of secondary schools in which issues of exclusion of groups of students have arisen concerning ideologies of merit, choice, and tradition. (JS)

Examines patterns of course selection among African American female students in St. Louis public high schools from 1914 to 1930, the period of transition to a differentiated high school curriculum. Finds that the differentiated curriculum resulted in gender segregation across courses of study and supported the racial division of labor within the…

Examines how the practice of tracking affects students' social bonding with their school. Discovers that tracking creates a polarization between students. Higher level tracked students accept the schools demands as normative, while lower tracked students rebel and often drop out. Includes statistical tables on drop-out rates and other variables.…