The primary objectives of the Mexican American Project at Sacramento State College are to prepare "agents of change" through the applied social sciences, to work within the culture of the schools, to increase the opportunities for the Mexican American learner, to further the concept of involvement of the Spanish-speaking community in the…

Two studies reporting the results of surveys of minority student perceptions of isolation extant in desegregated school settings in Texas and New Mexico are presented. Study I involved Mexican-American students who were given a 25-item questionnaire concerning their perceived educational environment. Students were asked to what extent each…

Identifies and ranks major and specific cultural and methodological concerns of 42 Anglo student teachers serving in Navajo, Hopi, and Apache elementary schools. Data reveal that young teachers can be culturally sensitive, feel uneasy about basic teaching skills and strategies, and do make successful personal adaptations on reservations. (Author)

The present study examines a new battery of nonverbal cognitive measures used extensively with numerous preschool children. Seven nonverbal, individually administered measures of fluid reasoning and visualization were administered to these children. Raw scores were converted to age-corrected scaled scores and subjected to multivariate analysis of…

A study of basic Title VII programs examines salient program features, including grade levels served, enrollment characteristics, staff experience, and technological features of bilingual programs. A typical Title VII (Spanish-English) bilingual program is summarized. Data reveal that English is used more often than Spanish in most bilingual…

A study examining student perceptions of teacher ethnic bias surveyed 2,409 Mexican American and non-Latino white adolescent dropouts and students from three communities in the southwestern United States. Although perceptions of teacher ethnic bias were not rampant, such perceptions existed to a greater degree among dropouts, Mexican Americans,…

Examines effects of socioeconomic status, school funding, English proficiency, and Latino population concentration on achievement scores of students in grades 3, 6, and 12 in 66 rural California school districts. Performance on the California Assessment Program was predicted primarily by parental socioeconomic status, and, unexpectedly, improved…

The National Institute on Mental Health attempted to address the issue of providing a reliable baseline on alcohol-related problems among adolescents with the Adolescent Assessment Referral System (AARS). Part of this tool is the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument (POSIT), a 139-item questionnaire printed in English and Spanish. This…

The purpose of this multicultural education module is to provide faculty, teachers, and administrators with a resource that will aid them in creating an environment that is amenable to diverse social and cultural groups within U.S. school systems. The guide identifies current resources for addressing issues with respect to cultural diversity and…

Mathematics anxiety and competence of 57 Anglo and Hispanic pre-service teachers were measured before and after a 30-hour workshop using the training program EQUALS. Students were divided into three groups: elementary, secondary, and library media. Students in the library media class served as the control group; the other two groups were the…

Designed to explore the effectiveness of predictors of academic readiness among low SES ethnically diverse children, this study tested low income 4- and 5-year-old Anglo-American, Mexican, and Vietnamese children eligible for kindergarten in the school year 1982-83. The recently arrived Mexican and Vietnamese children did not speak English. Sixty…

The problem of Hispanic-Anglo conflicts in nonverbal communication is approached in this paper from the perspective of a teacher of English and Spanish as second languages, using largely anecdotal and often autobiographical data. Specific cross-cultural differences between Hispanics (Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Cubans) and Anglos in the area of…

This conference sought to bring to the attention of a broad audience of educators the problems facing Spanish-speakers in this country. The speakers, including Congressman Herman Badillo of New York, all agreed that not enough was being done to assist the person of Spanish background in adapting to a new and foreign culture, and presented specific…

The purposes of this study were to determine which dialect features associated with particular classes and ethnic groups are unacceptable by the dominant culture in an urban community (Fort Wayne, Indiana) and to suggest implications of the findings for teaching of English language arts and skills. Phonological and inflectional features in the…

After discussing the view that ethnic and socioeconomic status are, undesirably, predictive of academic success (e.g., only 3 or 4% of the Indians in Northwest Washington were high school graduates at the time of writing), this document sketches the rationale and methods of Western Washington State College's (WWSC) Project Catch-Up (PCU).…