Describes how Norfolk (Virginia) Public Schools formulated, implemented, and benefited from a mandatory student uniform policy. Student benefits include enhanced self-image, improved academic indicator ratings, and increased participation. School benefits include a dramatic decline in discipline infractions, improved attendance, and an improvement…

Describes a study of the influence of college culture on Hispanic community college student progress, drawing from interviews with administrators, faculty, and staff. Presents findings regarding the importance of the family, economic considerations, students' knowledge of the college system, cultural understanding, and relationships with feeder…

Staff and students at small regional campuses often consider them to be a learning environment with many advantages. Students can benefit from the opportunities for enhanced access to staff provided by factors such as small classes and a compact campus. International students from non-English-speaking backgrounds are one group for whom these…

THE TRADITIONAL VIEW THAT A CHILD'S INTELLECTUAL ACHIEVEMENTS DEPEND PRIMARILY UPON GENETIC PREDISPOSITIONS IS NOW BEING SUPERSEDED BY THE IDEA, SUPPORTED BY MANY RECENT STUDIES, THAT THE FACTORS OF ENVIRONMENT AND EXPERIENCE PROFOUNDLY AFFECT PERFORMANCE ON MENTAL TASKS AND SUCCESS IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. THE SOCIOECONOMIC LEVEL OF THE PUPIL…

This book examines the effects of neighborhood location, the educational context of the school, and such family characteristics as race and socioeconomic status upon the social adjustment of children who are part of a program deliberately designed to achieve greater racial integration. The study reported here was done in a northern city that…

A large percentage of African American students comprise special education classes; yet few African Americans are special education teachers. Determinants of success for African Americans pursuing graduate study previously cited in the literature include academic and financial support, and faculty-student mentoring relationships. This qualitative…

This work by a social psychologist is concerned with the consequences of the values, attitudes, and behavior of teachers and more advantaged peers for the educational experience of disadvantaged youngsters in heterogeneous schools. The academic, social, and emotional factors in these schools are interdependent and equally important for the…

This issue of the quarterly newsletter, "PLAINTalk," is the second in a four part series, reprinting chapters from Sharon and Craig Ramey's book, "Going to School." Other articles in this issue include: (1) Ten Hallmarks of Children Who Succeed in School (Craig T. Ramey and Sharon L. Ramey); (2) Questioning to Aid Reading Comprehension; (3) Basic…

When children feel that they are among friends in their schools and classrooms, they make the school community their own. Using classroom vignettes and collegial conversations, this book illustrates the creation of caring learning communities in six elementary school classrooms. Part 1 of the book, "Four Keys to Classroom Community,"…

A study in Finland examined rural students' experiences of the transition from a small rural primary school (grades 1-6) to a bigger village secondary school (grades 7-9). Qualitative data were obtained from essays written by 132 students in 13 small rural primary schools, 1 village school, and 1 city school. Students wrote the essays as…

Questionnaires that were developed to measure factors in the academic persistence of minority college students were administered to 454 Mexican American students at two large southwestern universities. Both the Cultural Congruity Scale and the University Environment Scale were significant predictors of academic persistence of Mexican American…

Presents an interview with Dr. John H. Lounsbury, Dean Emeritus at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, and publications editor for the National Middle School Association. Issues discussed include changes in young adolescents' education; the influence of societal changes, educational reform, and technological development in the…

Ethnographically examines factors impacting academic performance of 23 Sioux Indian high school students in Canada during the transition from reservation elementary school to public high school. Factors affecting responses to environments without consideration of Indian culture are discussed in light of the withdrawal of 18 students from school.…

Examines formal classroom encounters among Laotian refugee and at-risk American students and their teacher in a lower-track literature course and the influences of community context and school culture. Highlights linkages between student perceptions of self-competence and peer worth, the teacher's role in the social organization of work-related…

The study presented in this article was conducted to determine psychometric features of scales for Turkish students by adapting the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS) developed by Midgley and others (2000) to the Turkish language in order to measure personal and classroom goal orientations. The scales were developed to test…