Teachers must acknowledge and validate minority students' home language without using it to limit their potential. Educators who are committed to teaching all students can help such students transcend their home language, acquire a secondary discourse, and succeed in mainstream schools without losing respect for their home culture. (SM)

Despite efforts to increase graduate student diversity, recruitment and retention are difficult. Strategies include financial aid, faculty sensitivity to minority needs, minority faculty as role models and mentors, support systems, firm administrative commitment, and recruiting students in groups rather than individually. Student adjustment to the…

When parents are unavailable for their children, or simply do not know what to do when a youngster is experiencing an overwhelming stressor, the parent's response, or lack of, can compound the child's psychosocial difficulties. Even though some youngsters overcome the adversity of inadequate parenting, others cannot and consequently experience…

This report discusses the results of a survey of the characteristics and the social and academic experiences of black undergraduates at eight predominantly white and regionally diverse State college campuses. The majority of the students sampled were freshmen. Major findings are that: (1) black undergraduates did not report markedly unpleasant or…

Indian students who have withdrawn from public schools for various reasons may receive alternative education at Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Boarding Schools, but they may also face academic, environmental, and personal problems. Attending a boarding school involves a radical culture break. Students are often far from home, deprived of parental…

This paper reports a survey of 59 able children (grades 4-8) that found a correlation between student life-skills scores and mothers' involvement in community service, leadership, or other creatively productive activities. The paper then describes development of an extended-day program at a private school, that provided stimulating after-school…

After studying national literature and local needs, Kutztown University (Pennsylvania) created the Student Support Services Freshman Year Program to help at-risk freshmen acclimate to the campus environment and succeed in college. The program consists of five components: academic advising/counseling; a freshman colloquium; a student-mentor…

Vassar College (New York) has joined with 10 community colleges to encourage students to transfer to the four-year institution. During the summer, groups of students with high academic potential matriculate in two challenging Vassar classes and live together, coping with academic and social adjustments; a large proportion have transferred. Faculty…

There is growing consensus among early childhood professionals about the importance of early childhood transition services (activities designed to ensure continuity for young children across different environments, including homes, child care settings, preschools, and schools). Providing such services requires collaboration and linkages among…

Graduate programs were developed cooperatively by several U.S. universities and the Iranian Ministry of Education in response to the critical shortage of Iranian teachers and educational administrators. A variety of administrative, logistical, academic, and cultural problems were encountered in bringing mid-career educators to the United States to…

A 2-year ethnographic study of the intake process involving preschool-age Hispanic children at a school for the deaf formed the basis for this paper, which focuses on strategies that Hispanic hearing-impaired children develop in response to the sociocultural world of the classroom. The struggle for "ownership" of the child, which begins when the…

In an inter-institutional action research project, seven teachers from three high schools and two colleges in Canada interviewed 88 students as they looked forward to college, experienced the first semester, and looked back after the second semester. The purpose was to discover what student perceptions and what institutional policies and practices…

Proceedings of the first National Conference on Academic Advising, sponsored in 1977 by the University of Vermont, are presented. Among the 36 papers presented are the following: "Making Advising Work: Basic Elements in Developing and Implementing a Successful Academic Advising Program" (David S. Crockett); "A Community College Academic Advisor's…

An article and descriptions of programs for first-year college students are presented. In "As Freshmen First," John Orr Dwyer recounts the history of the word "freshman" and outlines some of the characteristics of the 1980s first-year student. Recognizing the problems that face students entering college for the first time, he…

The purpose of the university seminar at Bowling Green State University is to introduce new students to the academic and cultural life of higher education at the university by focusing on as many of its aspects as possible during a 20-contact hour, 10-week period. The seminar is coordinated by faculty/staff/upper division students and presents the…