This report summarizes evaluation information on reading, writing, and mathematics achievement among elementary and secondary school students in 310 school districts in Massachusetts, after the second year of implementation of the Basic Skills Improvement Policy. The report describes data collection, analysis, and reporting procedures, summarizes…

The Annie E. Casey Foundation launched the eight-year, six-city demonstration project, Jobs Initiative (JI), in 1995 to provide support and assistance to community groups, employers, foundations, and community colleges helping disadvantaged, low-skilled workers secure family-supporting jobs. JI sites found that even during a time when employers…

Two public policy shifts in the past 10 years--the move from welfare to work and the end of social promotion in school--are intertwined in their implementation in the lives of working poor families. This report draws on ethnographic data from a 6-year study of working poor families in New York City over the period in which welfare reform became a…

This publication recognizes the importance of women's health, and more specifically, the role of culture, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic background, geographic location, and other social and economic factors in contributing to health status. After a section that highlights important issues, section 1, "Factors Affecting the Health of Women of…

This study uses symbolic interactionism as a framework for understanding race, and for understanding how faculty of color construct the promotion and tenure process. Interviews were conducted with 16 faculty members at a private research university in a small United States city. Interviewees included eight African American women, three African…

These proceedings present testimony from the California Senate Select Committee on Higher Education Admissions and Outreach and the California Senate Select Committee on Higher Education regarding undergraduate admissions at the University of California (UC) in the aftermath of Proposition 209 and California Board of Regents' Special Proposal 1…

In an effort to refute the claim that minority group parents do not value higher education as highly as other parents, this study surveyed 1,015 adults in the general public, as well as Hispanic (n=202), African American (n=202), and white (n=201) parents of high school students. Opinions centered around the following: (1) higher education is…

Underrepresentation of minorities and women in mathematics, science, and engineering education will have serious ramifications for America's technological future. A workforce comprised of increasingly large percentages of Blacks, Hispanics, females, and the economically disadvantaged will be inadequately prepared unless more of these groups are…

Eight help-seeking categories were identified and compared with regard to adolescents' gender, race, alcohol consumption, substance abuse, and school misconduct. Problem behaviors were most prevalent for two categories: friends as only resource and social isolate. Males, Blacks, and Hispanics were overrepresented in the social isolate category.…

A study investigated the effect of adding a writing measure to the Graduate Management Admission Test on the gender/ethnic composition of an admissions pool. Standardized differences from the white male reference group were computed for men and women in four ethnic/minority groups: Whites, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, and…

Data from an annual survey on higher education degrees awarded to minority group members are summarized and presented. From 1988-89 to 1992-93, the increase in degrees awarded to minorities has outpaced those conferred on whites. Institutional ratings, based on number of degrees conferred, are presented for baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral…

The school lives of culturally diverse young adolescents identified as potential dropouts were studied ethnographically. Data collected across two years indicated that teachers who students considered most successful in helping them learn used practices based on knowledge about students' home cultures and knowledge about the impact of students'…

This paper describes the Action Research (AR) Team model for joining classroom observations with collegial interaction among university faculty, teaching assistants, and university students to improve pedagogy and the retention of diverse students in higher education. The paper includes a progress report of efforts to develop the model and apply…

This research report examined the distribution and incidence of disabilities among minority communities. A review of literature is provided including relevant statistics on the prevalence of disabilities in African Americans and Hispanic Americans. The study used data from the National Health Interview Survey (n=122,859) to determine the…

This book compiles findings on the children of recent immigrants to the United States. The dearth of accessible census data and the tendency for school records and scholarly surveys to compress second-generation youth into a classificatory scheme that obliterates their history have obscured a major phenomenon in U.S. society--a rapidly growing…