A pre-tested schedule was used in interviewing 187 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade working-class pupils from a West Coast community with a population of 95,000. The Sample included 6, Negroes, 74 Mexican Americans, and 45 Caucasians. (JM)

Assesses the influence of grade and reading competence on inner-city Black children's sequence memory and use of organization in recall. Suggests that primary teachers should shift from literal decoding practice to providing semantic organizers and emphasizing interrelationships between words. The development of such basic cognitive skills…

This study compares the results of self-report instruments in the measurement of the effect of ethnic group membership and mixture upon the self-concept of disadvantaged students, and analyzes these effects across the two instruments. (Author/JM)

Reports on a study of resilience leading to academic success among 20 African American urban disadvantaged high school seniors. Data suggest their success was largely due to supportive family, interaction with concerned educators, and the development of the personality traits of perseverance and optimism. (SLD)

Examined the contexts related to antisocial fighting behaviors among urban, African American high school students. Data on students' social contexts (family, neighborhood, peers, and school) and fighting behaviors indicated a relationship between negative peer influence and antisocial fighting behaviors. The combination of all four negative…

School counselors working with Ebonics-speaking youth must assume the role of consultants to, and collaborators with, teachers and students toward increasing and improving students' use of Standard English without depreciating their culturally-based dialect and improving the teacher/student relationship in the language-learning process.…

Describes the 10-year-old Washington Urban League-District of Columbia Public Schools program, Operation Rescue, a program of continuing support of the instructional goals of the school system. The project demonstrates that a school-community partnership can bring great talent and resources to local school systems. (JB)

Focuses on the limitations of traditional standardized psychoeducational assessments for Ebonics speakers and describes alternative measures that may yield more accurate results for these students. Also highlights the implications of traditional and nontraditional assessment approaches for test developers, evaluators, educators, and students.…

Discusses historical and contemporary issues surrounding the debate about the Oakland (California) public schools proposal on the teaching of Ebonics and suggests lessons to be learned from it. Chief among these lessons is the need to identify strategies for teaching Standard English that validate the students' own language and culture. (SLD)

Reports on an investigation of the out-of-school literacy practices of two African American urban high school students. Conclusions are drawn about the complex and productive ways these youths use literacy practices in their social environments. Implications are made for instruction using youth culture as a bridge to writing development. (SLD)

Critiques recent efforts to improve the capacity of human service institutions to meet the needs of urban youth, and identifies the dissonance between the risk factors associated with these youth's cultural identities and the norms of the social institutions serving them. Discusses ways of overcoming this dissonance. (GR)

Presents initial findings in a study of language use by preadolescent African-American male participants in a neighborhood sponsored Youth Basketball Association. Using data collected over a 30-month period in Chicago (Illinois), the study takes an ethnographic approach for exploring communicative competencies in oral and written language. (JB)

Compared two single-sex and two coeducational fifth-grade classes (90 students) from inner-city schools for academic achievement. Class grades were consistently higher in the single-sex classes, although the difference was not always statistically significant. Standardized-test data showed no trend, although coeducational groups performed better…

Assesses the self-concept and school attitudes of a sample of Black ninth graders at two urban schools. Reports that, while the percentage of Black youth with low self-concept may be lower now than in previous years, there are still many who lack a positive self-image. (KH)

Describes research aimed at informing and improving AIDS prevention efforts for urban African American youth and their families during the children's transition to adolescence. Also presents are a theoretical model and preliminary descriptive data focusing on the implications for preventive intervention work and the need for ongoing collaboration…