Two exploratory studies suggest ways to address Hispanic Americans' education needs. School staff should place value on the students' language and cultures, set high expectations for language-minority students, design staff development to help teachers and counselors serve language-minority students more effectively, and encourage parents to…

This report presents trial school-district-level results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics 2003, 2005, and 2007 assessments at grades 4 and 8 for 10 urban public-school districts: Atlanta City School District; Austin Independent School District (ISD); Boston School District; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools; City…

The Nation's Report Card[TM] informs the public about the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students in the United States. Report cards communicate the findings of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a continuing and nationally representative measure of achievement in various subjects over time. The results from…

Objective: To examine symptomatology and mental health service use following students' contact with a large urban school district's suicide prevention program. Method: In 2001 school district staff conducted telephone interviews with 95 randomly selected parents approximately 5 months following their child's contact with the district's suicide…

Conducted a meta-analysis of 21 studies to determine the impact of parental involvement on minority students' academic achievement. The impact of parental involvement was significant for all minority groups studied. Also for all groups, parental involvement affected all academic variables by at least two tenths of a standard deviation unit.…

Describes the Nativity Mission Center, a nonsectarian school for Latino boys in Manhattan, New York, which provides extended-day, extended-year education and strong graduate support for students who complete eighth grade and enter high school. Over 80 percent of graduates complete high school, 75 percent enter college, and 37 percent graduate with…

Presents a K-8 school design in Chicago that bridges the gap between the Hispanic culture of its students and an Anglo-American society by creating a Mexican feeling without making it look foreign to its surroundings. Describes the community in which the school resides, the planning strategy for its development, its architectural features,…

Investigated how Hispanic American and white students from rural and urban high schools differed in their perspectives on postsecondary plans according to grade level, ethnicity, and urbanicity. Surveys and focus groups illustrated differences in attitudes and behaviors depending on urbanicity. Students' ethnicity affected high school experiences.…

In this special issue, we have sought to explore the strategies, programming, interventions, and policy decisions that institutions and communities use collaboratively as they attempt to cope with this educational crisis. Some of those strategies involve working with nontraditional constituencies such as parents or involve nontraditional and…

This issue highlights six distinct studies. The first study examines the inclusion of literacy props and teacher mediation on the literacy behaviors of young children. The second explores the relationship of amount of talk, diversity of talk, and complexity of talk on the language acquisition of young preschool children who are learning a second…

This report summarizes ACT assessment scores of students attending Great City Schools (GCS) between 1990-99, examining achievement gaps by course preparation, race, gender, and poverty. Data included ACT composite scores and scores in English, reading, math, and science reasoning. The total number of ACT test-takers increased nationally by 20…

To comply with the district desegregation plan, the San Francisco Unified School District previously required higher scores for Chinese American students applying to the academic magnet, Lowell High School, than for more under-represented groups. Several Chinese parents sued the district, challenging the legality of the desegregation plan, which…

Beginning with the class of 2003, all Massachusetts students must pass the state's high stakes test, MCAS, in order to graduate, which may significantly affect Massachusetts' already high dropout rate. According to this MCAS Alert, instead of remedying the problem of students who graduate without skills, this policy threatens to push the most…

Six teacher preparation categories were studied as significant components within the flow of resources for their effect on student achievement at one high-poverty middle school. Results found no significant mathematics achievement differences among students taught by teachers with full certification, alternative certification, or math temporary…

A teacher researcher studied Hispanic-American seventh graders in an English as a Second Language class who had older siblings or close friends in gangs, conducting interviews with students and their teachers. The research investigated teacher researchers' social responsibility beyond the study. This paper discusses lessons for teacher researchers…