We study the benefits of junior kindergarten for linguistic-minority 4-year-olds compared to their linguistic-majority classmates from the same low-income neighborhoods. At the end of the school year, linguistic-minority children made significantly greater improvements in language skills than their host society classmates. At the mid-year point,…

Drawing on and extending the work presented in a companion volume, "Schooling and Language Minority Students: A Theoretical Framework," five principles are presented that represent an integration of recent empirical research in bilingualism, bilingual education, and second language acquisition to help policymakers and educators meet the…

To understand and deal with student behavior, we must understand that most behavior is caused by objects and events in the world around the student; that students have learned personal ways of relating to those objects and events; and that in a setting like a school it is easier and more productive to alter those objects and events than to change…

A study examined rural Australian student experiences of the transition to high school. Data were gathered from interviews, questionnaires, and student journals of 10 rural students during the last 5 weeks of primary school and during the first three terms of Year 7 in high school. Findings indicate that students had many anxieties related to the…

This study aimed to examine views, concerns and expectations of immigrant Bangladeshi parents and children in Sydney concerning transition to kindergarten (the first year of school). This study builds on the previous work of the Starting School Research Project at the University of Western Sydney by: (1) deriving data from families and children…

This study examined the sense of community felt by students and teachers at 24 elementary schools in 6 school districts in different regions of the United States. The study is based on the assumption that students who feel part of a caring community will adopt the community's norms and values. On a 38-item questionnaire, students indicated the…

The United States is now experiencing a new wave of immigrants, which is expected to increase as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Schools, particularly those in five states, are facing great challenges in their efforts to meet the educational needs of immigrant students, most of whom speak different languages and are poor. When…

This report discusses the results of a survey of the characteristics and the social and academic experiences of black undergraduates at eight predominantly white and regionally diverse State college campuses. The majority of the students sampled were freshmen. Major findings are that: (1) black undergraduates did not report markedly unpleasant or…

Comprised of excerpts from the Responsive Classroom Newsletter, this book details practices for use during the beginning of the elementary school year to build a foundation for a successful school year. Chapter 1, "The First Six Weeks of School: Building the Foundation for a Successful Year" (Ruth Charney and Marlynn Clayton) introduces…

Noting that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of West Indian immigrants to the United States, this paper discusses factors affecting the acculturation of Jamaican immigrant children in the American educational system, highlighting factors relating to poor performance of these immigrant children. The paper first provides an…

This case study of a program for Taiwanese students at Louisiana Tech University examined the challenges and rewards of working with international students. Data for the study come from the literature on international education, interviews with Taiwanese graduate students in the program, observations of classes, personal reflections of the…

The transition to the first year of schooling has been perceived as one of the major challenges children have to face in their early childhood years. This transition can be a critical factor for children's adjustment to the demands of the school environment and in determining future school success. When children experience social difficulties in…

Although school violence is an important topic to the U.S. public, little research has examined issues of violence and bad behavior in schools, particularly among early adolescents. To fill this need, research on the transition from elementary to middle grades, to include the domain of violence, is covered in this paper. Three aspects of violence…

Concern for the dropout phenomenon among secondary learning disabled (LD) students led to a preliminary study of an urban school's decision-making structures, as well as events that influence ninth graders' behavior and decisions, increasing their risk for dropping out of high school. Data were collected from three sources: observation of school…

This University of Maryland, College Park student handbook is intended as a reference to help academic achievement program (AAP) students successfully navigate the campus and the academic services available. Sections of the handbook cover the history, philosophy, and mission of the AAP; describe a summer transitional program; list the five program…