Educational researchers should expand their methodology to include the student's voice and to consider the impact of the student's environment when defining being "at-risk of failure" or "at-risk of dropping out of school." Current definitions of who is at-risk place the onus of at-riskness entirely within the student.…

Explores the community as an important context of both legitimate and illegitimate female behavior. Based on the principle of the centrality of the structures of gender relations for behavior of males and females, the original community model is expanded to include population characteristics relevant to that structure. (SLD)

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU's) and predominantly black colleges and universities (PBCU's) have an opportunity to empower their students and their institutions to develop "beloved communities" in which to exhibit innovations in human interactions and economic self-sufficiency. In this model, campuses would be used…

A politicized, sophisticated citizenry split into several special interest factions is placing great demands on school board members just as they find themselves struggling with unprecedented organizational and financial difficulties. In order to meet these challenges, board members must respond to districtwide needs rather than represent special…

Social scientists have adopted two different views on the influence of the community and home on academic achievement of lower-class and minority students. The first is the deficit perspective, or the failure-of-socialization hypothesis. The second is the difference perspective, or the cultural-discontinuity/failure-of-communication hypothesis.…