Access to important educational resources in California's middle and high schools is not equal among schools that serve different student populations. Overall, the most disadvantaged populations of middle and high school students are likely to have the least access to the resources necessary for learning. California policymakers are focusing on…

The purpose of this report is to describe the programs and services designed to support underserved students at Colorado's public colleges and universities. This report was prepared in response to HB06-1024 Concerning Underserved Students at Institutions of Higher Education, which requires each governing board to prepare and submit a report…

This article focuses on the basic idea that having equality and justice for all in schooling cannot be achieved in the current climate where students are viewed solely as individuals. In fact, given the educational debt and achievement gaps, the ideas of equality and justice are necessarily contradictory. Achieving justice, in light of the…

Using cluster analysis, 789 predominately Latino and African American high school youth were classified into varying academic at-risk profiles using self-reported levels of academic confidence, motivation to attend school, perceived family support, connections with teachers and peers, and exposure to violence. Six clusters emerged, 5 of which were…

The purposes of this study were to examine whether ethnic differences in college students' self-construals exist and whether these self-construals are associated with preferences for different types of classroom organization; and also to test the validity of self-construal theory to explain psychological differences. Self-reports were collected…

The university eligibility of African American and Latino high school graduates in California has increased significantly in recent years. The Commission's most recent eligibility study showed that the percentage of African American high school graduates who met the minimum admission requirements of the University of California more than doubled…

A gap in standardized achievement-test scores among different groups of students has existed since the inception of standardized testing. The gap between white and African-American schoolchildren was the primary impetus behind much of the social policy devoted to desegregating schools in the second half of the past century. Through a combination…

This chapter presents an overview of the demographic shifts occurring in the United States and discusses the associated rapid increase in the number of community college students from diverse racial backgrounds. Profiles of two community colleges offer examples of timely responses to emerging majority students' academic, economic, and social…

Epistemological beliefs, or beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing, are currently a target of increased research interest. The present study examined two research questions: (1) how do epistemological beliefs change over time? and (2) what role do gender, ethnicity, SES, and achievement play in their development? The study was…

In early May 2002, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released a study of U.S. history achievement among fourth, eight, and twelfth graders, finding that nearly 60 percent of high school senior test-takers failed to demonstrate basic knowledge of U.S. history. Although the hand-wringing has begun about what "must be done" to…

An important predictor of whether students remain in school or withdraw is their ability to identify with academics. Consistent with Ogbu's (1992) cultural inversion and Steele's (1992) stereotype threat hypotheses, research has shown that Black and Hispanic students tend to demonstrate higher levels of academic disidentification relative to Asian…

A model intervention for academic persistence and motivation of African American and Latino high school students is provided in this article. The authors provide a theoretical and practical description of The Educational Navigation Skills Seminar (TENSS) as a demonstration of an educational persistence intervention. By reviewing the higher…

Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count for this issue of "Data Notes," we examine the relationships between course attempts, completions, and attainment - and found results that countered our expectations. The analysis examines the number of credits attempted and completed for the 2002 Achieving the Dream cohort's first…

Fifty years after "Brown v Board of Education" inequalities in public education are evident in the disproportionate numbers of Black and Latino students who are held back, often do not graduate from high school, or are removed from school by unforgiving zero tolerance discipline policies. The National Center for Educational Statistics…

This study is a snapshot of some school districts in California that are slightly ahead of their peers, though still in the early stages of this change process. What is important about the study is, first, the optimistic finding that capacity to support schools and school improvement can be built within school districts, at least in those large…