This report is the nation's sixth look at how its major city school systems are performing on the state assessments devised to boost standards, measure progress, provide opportunity, and ensure accountability for results. Data are presented on 66 city school systems from 38 states and the District of Columbia. The statistics are presented…

The article examines, through comparative case study method, how secondary-language-arts preservice student teachers' identities were constructed by spacetime configurations and what those identities meant to the individuals in the study. It reflects on the findings from two of the preservice secondary arts teachers for the study in two…

Latinos and Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) are increasing in numbers throughout the United States. This study reports on a survey administered to 350 APA and 119 Latino American students entering a large east coast university. Significant differences between APA and Latino students emerged: (1) APA students were less likely than Latino students to…

This book aims to provide a better understanding of Mexican American high school students and their struggles with ethnicity, Americanization, prejudice, schools, and life's purposes. In most Anglo minds, these students are characterized by exceptionally high dropout rates and poor school performance, without any explanation for this performance…

Americans of Hispanic origin are one of the fastest growing segments of the nation's population. This report presents data on a wide range of topics, including the following: (1) population growth, composition, and distribution; (2) age; (3) family composition; (4) educational attainment; (5) language and nativity; (6) labor force and occupation;…

Several studies in the 1980s found that Black students were more likely to be enrolled in college-preparatory programs than Whites of equal achievement and family background. These findings contradict suspicions that tracking systems create more Black-White inequality than would occur without them. However, a weakness of one study supporting this…

Traditional theories of development view separation and individuation as primary tasks of adolescents; the self-in-relation framework, however, argues that the autonomous and separate self-paradigm does not describe female development. Current research suggests that self-esteem arises from subscribing to separate self-definitions for males and…

A study investigated how elementary school students form a mental representation of simple addition and subtraction word problems, focusing on critical elements in the problems' semantic structure, and the extent to which the accuracy of the solutions found was related to the students' English language proficiency when the problems were presented…

A study was done to develop and evaluate a program designed to improve the academic and personal achievement of Hispanic American high school students. The study posited that the causes of Hispanic American students' belief that they could not achieve were: (1) dysfunctional learned behaviors; and (2) acculturation difficulties. Using findings on…

A study was conducted to identify organizational factors facilitating or inhibiting the transfer of Hispanic students from California community colleges to four-year institutions. Using the Kanter model of structural determinants for organizational behavior, the study examined opportunity structures (e.g., placement procedures and mobility…

The relationship between the relative language proficiencies of bilingual children and their scores on tests administered in one or both languages was studied in students referred to special education because of suspected learning disabilities. Bilingual Hispanic students (25 males and 15 females) in grades 2 through 4 from an urban school…

A study examined educational attainment among Latino students in the six-county San Francisco Bay Area. California's Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program results for 1998-99 were used to assess student achievement in reading and mathematics for grades 4, 7, and 10. Data were also collected on enrollment, dropout rates, percentage of…

A study explored factors contributing to the high attrition rate of Latino students in Hillsborough County (Florida) schools. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with 54 teachers; 52 high-achieving, 39 at-risk, and 6 dropout Latino middle and high school students; and 14 parents. Findings indicate that factors important to academic success…

A study examined English-dominant and Spanish-dominant students' perceptions of opportunities to communicate in science and mathematics classrooms. A survey was administered to 207 Mexican American secondary students who attended a summer enrichment program in mathematics and science at a university on the Texas-Mexico border. The students were…

This study was guided by two objectives: (1) to ascertain if college students differentiate among job-related values (i.e., those which depend on the particular place of employment); and (2) to investigate sex and ethnicity differences on the values. The participants were 80 male and 178 female undergraduate students at 14 universities or…