A pre-tested schedule was used in interviewing 187 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade working-class pupils from a West Coast community with a population of 95,000. The Sample included 6, Negroes, 74 Mexican Americans, and 45 Caucasians. (JM)

Describes a bookstore established for and run by students at an elementary school in New York City. Students are paid for work as cashiers and store personnel with certificates for free books. An editor's note describes the growth of the program, which now buys in volume and supplies many schools around the country. (SLD)

Recognizing that enhancing the interpersonal problem solving skills of children as young as age four can reduce or prevent high-risk behaviors later on, researchers designed a competence-building model of primary prevention. The two criteria tested were: (1) the theory of interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS) skills as mediators of social…

This study compares the results of self-report instruments in the measurement of the effect of ethnic group membership and mixture upon the self-concept of disadvantaged students, and analyzes these effects across the two instruments. (Author/JM)

Many reading teachers, particularly those whose speech differs considerably from the children they teach, confuse norms of speaking and reading performance variables. Teacher's attitudes towards children's speech influence their judgment of children's reading. (NH)

Urban African American elementary school students (n=128) were asked to compare the memorization of noncontroversial information with the learning and discussion of information designed to help students develop personal stances on controversial matters. Older students, more than younger students, saw collaborative inquiry as fair and likely to…

Describes the Book Club of Reading Connection, a nonprofit organization in Virginia, that gives books to children in homeless shelters and for up to one year after they leave the shelter. The key to the book club's effectiveness and its longevity is communication between the Reading Connection and the families. (SLD)

Studied the identity of minority third graders through their autobiographies. Findings based on 188 autobiographies from 8 urban elementary schools show a pattern of responses that crosscut psychological constructs, gender, and race. Discusses changes needed in school culture to facilitate the development of well-adjusted children. (SLD)

The author worked with 10 students at an inner-city elementary school. This case study illuminates the interplay between theory, practice, and values by describing effective techniques of intervention in a situation that reflects social pathology. Traditional African values are incorporated in counseling interventions with disruptive male…

The purpose of the Nature Computer Camp (NCC) is to provide sixth-graders in District of Columbia Public Schools an opportunity to explore and appreciate nature in its natural setting. The program also aspires to develop computer proficiency, enhance students' social and interpersonal skills, stimulate group interaction, and strengthen students'…

Discusses the background of and the need for the New York City Board of Education's new program to improve the education of "all Spanish speaking pupils whose difficulties with English impede their learning", which was begun in October 1974 and was to be fully implemented throughout 1975. [Available from Center for Migration Studies of…

Sixty beginning first-grade students in an urban school district in South Carolina participated in a study investigating the relationship between representational competence and the ability to perform first-grade learning tasks. Representational competence may be defined as the ability to use representations of reality (such as pictures, symbols,…

Results show that there is a marked tendency for Blackfoot children to cooperate with each other when it is adaptive to do so and seem better able to inhibit competitive responses than non-Indian children. (Authors/MB)

Mediation is a process that enables two or more persons in a dispute to find mutually agreeable solutions to their differences with the aid of a mediator. The mediator does not take sides, but helps the disputants consider their options. Mediation is voluntary, and disputing parties must agree to participate. Furthermore, the mediator does not…

This elementary school training manual is based on the School Mediation Program developed originally by Good Shepherd Neighborhood House to train students in grades 6 through 12 in conflict resolution and violence prevention through peer mediation. Extending the program to the younger grades gives an earlier opportunity to use peer mediation to…