This book focuses on ways teachers can modify their teaching in order to increase the academic achievement of students from the racial and ethnic groups that are experiencing massive failure in U.S. schools, and consequently in society. Modifying instruction to improve the academic achievement of African American and Latino students will benefit…

The College Board launched the National Task Force on Minority High Achievement in 1997. The primary mission of this Task Force has been to develop recommendations for how segments of U.S. society can work to increase the number of under-represented minority students who achieve at high levels academically. This report contains Task Force…

Discusses the harmful effects of culturally inappropriate, prejudicial, and disempowering classroom management techniques often employed with students who are not Euro-American or middle class. Teachers need to adapt classroom management techniques to their student population, eliminate prejudicial classroom management, and replace techniques that…

Too often, conversations about Latinos in education are based on ignorance. Put simply, ignorance is "not knowing." As often as not, people in these conversations assume they know more than they actually do--based on individual experiences or cliches shared by others--rather than on data. Excelencia in Education addressed this by providing…

This article explores how the structure of higher education in the United States and Israel mediates the relationship among race/ethnicity, social origins, and postsecondary outcomes. On the basis of differences in how the two systems of higher education have developed, the authors anticipated that inequality in college attendance will be greater…

In Illinois, as in other states, minorities, Blacks and Hispanics in particular, are under-represented in higher education. The historically low rates of Black and Hispanic participation in higher education raise equity and labor supply issues. This report supplements the annual report of the Illinois Board of Higher Education and provides further…

Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, Central Americans, and South Americans, all so-called "Hispanics," or "Latinos," have brought their working hands and all of their skills and talents to the United States. They have come from many places to become the United States' fastest growing minority group. By the…

Scholars and practitioners in the field of multicultural education need a historical perspective on the role of cultural pluralism throughout U.S. history. This paper begins by tracing the role schools have played in socializing people to assimilate to an Anglo-Saxon society and discussing the rise of the ideals of cultural pluralism in U.S.…

The articles in this volume document an educational situation which underserves Chicanas/Latinas and contributes to an unraveling of women's power to perform creative functions in society. The lack of research on this topic only serves to hide the problem which threatens to undermine the educational success of a major percentage of Chicana/Latina…

An overview of the theories of Tinto and Astin on student integration and involvement with references to the Chicano student dropout rate and persistence is provided. Topics include the following: the effects of integration and involvement; Tinto's theory of student departure; Astin's theory of involvement; linking integration and involvement;…

Demographically, mainland Hispanic Americans constitute a population that is economically and educationally diverse. Nonetheless, a cluster of related findings indicates that Hispanic students are more poorly prepared for college than non-Hispanic White students. More Hispanic high school seniors than White non-Hispanics are enrolled in vocational…

Issues involved in the higher education community's role in increasing opportunities for minority youth are discussed in the following chapters: (1) "Education's Call to Action: An Introduction to the Issues" (demographic trends and the significance of the underrepresentation of certain minority groups in education); (2) "Myths and Realities in…

This collection of short articles focuses on bilingual education for Hispanics. The lead article cites statistics concerning the education of Hispanics, the segregation of Hispanics in schools, and the educational level they are likely to attain. The second article presents a historical perspective on bilingual education in American schools and…

This paper provides an overview and assessment of Secretary Bennett's "bilingual education initiative" of 1985 including his intention to seek regulatory and legislative changes in the 1984 Bilingual Education Act. Following a brief introduction, a summary of the Federal statutes, policies, and proposals which have shaped policy on…

Suburban schoolchildren of color, in the aggregate, do not perform as well as their white counterparts. In fact, the academic achievement gaps in many suburban communities are actually greater than those in urban school districts. This research brief looks at the achievement gap in suburban schools, offering preliminary answers to the following…