Data are presented on high school completion and college attendance trends for whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians. Also shown are minority group college enrollment trends; degrees earned by minority group; and enrollment (undergraduate, graduate, full- and part-time) by race at about 3,400 colleges and universities, organized…

Kennesaw State College (Georgia) adopted an invitational approach to create an environment which encouraged and affirmed students, faculty, staff and administrators. A new institutional environment aimed at serving diverse, contemporary needs and involved commitment to shared governance, encouragement of leadership at all levels, community…

Many disadvantaged students show incipient excellence underlying perceived errors in literacy performance. The paper examines research on helping teachers think more generatively about increasingly diverse student populations. Preservice teachers can be taught to handle multicultural classrooms by interpreting problematic student performance in…

Collaborative summer workshops between the Omaha (Nebraska) Public Schools and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were held to improve the learning environment in multicultural science classrooms. Workshop themes included multicultural understanding, cooperative learning, and problem solving. Discusses attitude changes in student/teacher…

Reports a study of students' class participation in eight law schools, focusing on the language and dynamics of classroom interaction of a culturally diverse student population. Results indicate that race and gender have an effect on student inclusion in law school classes, but patterning is complex and involves the interaction of other factors in…

Tested school-based intervention in the developmental domains of skills/knowledge, attitudes, orientations, and exploration/commitment for urban minority youth. Quantitative results indicated positive gains on multiple indices; qualitative assessment illustrated positive effects of intervention and the possible obstacles to intervention efficacy.…

Examines one community's efforts to fundamentally alter a high school's structure, curriculum, and instructional practices to provide greater educational opportunities for all students. The program used heterogeneous grouping in tandem with curricular and pedagogical changes. Student surveys indicated that the program was moderately successful in…

The American "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001 (NCLB) mandates that by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, all public school teachers teaching core subjects will hold at least a bachelor's degree, be fully licensed by the state and demonstrate knowledge in the subjects they are teaching in order that students have the maximum…

This chapter highlights the role of Hispanic-Serving Institutions in promoting the academic success of minority students and discusses successful strategies used by several Hispanic-Serving community colleges. (Contains 1 table.)

Racial disparities in special and gifted education cannot be understood independently of a broad legacy of racial inequity woven into American public education. The results of a qualitative study illustrate the context within which minority disproportionality occurs. School respondents agreed with the NRC panel's conclusion that poverty makes an…

Whether adolescents from immigrant and ethnic minority families will make a successful transition to adulthood hinges on their educational achievement, their acquisition of employable skills and abilities, and their physical and mental health. This article focuses on the extent to which diverse adolescents are prepared for adulthood according to…

This study examines the characteristics of elementary schools that experience chronic teacher turnover and the impacts of turnover on a school's working climate and ability to effectively function. Based on evidence from staff climate surveys and case studies, it is clear that high turnover schools face significant organizational challenges.…

With the specter of No Child Left Behind hanging over their heads, educators should be wary of using disaggregated data to track selected populations of students and their progress through school. Such data can be misleading by showing that students are doing well, although they may be taking classes that are not challenging. Although the myth of…

Educators often ignore the political requirements of urban reform in their focus on the research and models that guide it. Conversely, political scientists frequently miss the differences among reforms in their focus on coalitions and resources. Integrating Clarence N. Stone's concept of "civic capacity" with an educator's view of reform…

This article presents findings from a 4-year study of 13 culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools implementing comprehensive school reform (CSR) models. The study focused on: (a) the actions at the state and district levels that facilitated or inhibited reform implementation; (b) the adaptability of the various reforms in…