The most serious challenge urban educators and researchers face is to believe that education is important, that urban people have a right to equal educational opportunity, and that delivery systems to meet these needs can be designed. (Author/AM)

Proposes a sex equity research agenda for each of the divisions of the American Educational Research Association. Identifies epistemological equality, concepts and definitions of sex equity, and methodology as fundamental concerns. Suggests activities intended to advance a dialogue that will assist in defining the research area of sex equity. (KH)

In this excerpt from an address to the 1982 meeting of the American Educational Research Association, the director of the National Institution of Education reaffirms the Institute's commitment to equal education and quality education and outlines priorities for the funding of educational research in the 1980s. (Author/GC)

Responds to an article on how research shaped educational policy, examining misrepresented policymaking activities, correcting mistakes about the range and utility of National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) research on reading, correcting misperceptions of NICHD-supported research efforts that might arise in the minds of…

Responds to an essay that examined the role of whites in multicultural education, reviewed three books, and discussed the role of racial/cultural identity in teaching and learning. Notes that the essay is sometimes at odds with facts found in one of the books it reviews, suggesting that the essay helps perpetuate the inadequacy of white teachers…

Reviews two books: "Beyond Affirmative Action: Reframing the Context of Higher Education" (Robert A. Ibarra) and "Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action" (Gary Orfield and Michael Kurlaender). Discusses what is known about affirmative action in higher education, what educators consider affirmative action's appropriate…

Expands on an ethnographic study of a California school district, examining how adults repeatedly asked how achievement was linked to race yet repeatedly suppressed the question, and exploring the role of educational research in the dynamics of talk and silence. An explanatory habit of framing isolated players as particularly responsible for…

Achievements cited for ESEA include that it broke the log jam on federal aid to education, spotted the needs of children, fueled other movements toward equality of educational opportunity, recruited quality personnel, promoted public-nonpublic cooperation, promoted parental and community involvement, and the evaluation/accountability movement.…

Disagrees with W. Feinberg's criticism of "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them." Apart from the faults he finds with the book, Feinberg represents an essentialist kind of pessimism about the ability of public education to ameliorate injustices present in American education. (SLD)

Responds to an essay that examined the role of whites in multicultural education and reviewed three books on the subject, agreeing with the essay's assertion that having a positive white racial identity does not an antiracist educator make; questioning the essay's interpretation of the term marginalization regarding diverse students; and agreeing…

Critiques Hirsh's book, "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them," which suggests that progressive education is rampant in today's school, and all students should learn important subject matter content that should be appropriately sequenced and uniformly paced, with achievement objectively measured. Critiques Hirsh's minimization…

This legal case may answer some questions for lawyers on the limits to which desegregation may be carried under the backing of the Brown decision, yet it raises several specific questions that educators and educational researchers ought to address concerning factors that contribute to effective integration. (AM)

The strong tendency toward incrementalism in educational policy-making has a number of sources. The increased complexity and politicization of curriculum policy-making and restraints upon policy innovation impede innovative policy initiatives. (Author/EB)

Responds to an essay that examined the role of whites in multicultural education and reviewed three books, critiquing five of the essay's assumptions (e.g., there is a white movement in multicultural education, attention to whites' role in multicultural education is very recent, and the focus on white identity development in multicultural…

Discusses the potential for providing high quality mathematics instruction for all students, addressing four conditions that are necessary for achieving this goal: high quality curriculum; a stable, knowledgeable, and professional teaching community; high quality assessment aligned with curricular goals; and stability and mechanisms for the…