The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development undertook a 2-year project to assess non-school programs offered by various community-based youth organizations. This project included focus group interviews with youth about their current activities and preferences for after-school activities. Sixteen focus groups were conducted in the metropolitan…

Using a subsample of data relating to 4,668 first- and second-graders and their families from the 1991 National Household Education Survey, a study examined different ways of measuring whether a child is behind in grade and compared these measures with data about children who are below modal grade levels. Several profiles emerged. Children delayed…

The attitudes of principals toward ability grouping in the public schools of South Carolina were studied, emphasizing the degree to which principals feel that ability grouping contributes to the quality of education. Also examined were differences in attitudes of elementary school and secondary school principals (black and white, male and female,…

The critical aspects of a training model used in a program called Turning Point are described. The program allows teachers to make appropriate paradigm shifts that empower them to analyze their own teaching styles and student expectations in an effort to address their students' learning styles more effectively. The training model makes it possible…

This sourcebook is designed to give urban educators new information and strategies for working with parents of elementary school students through grade 6. Its five workshops explore how family life, school programs, teacher practices, and district policies can help build school-family partnerships for learning. Threaded through these workshops are…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in the United States know and can do in various academic subjects. The 1996 NAEP in mathematics assessed the current level of mathematical achievement as a mechanism for informing education reform. In 1996, 44…

This final report discusses the findings of a project that investigated research on the use of educational strategies with students with serious emotional disturbances (SED) for the purpose of communicating to teachers and parents which techniques were effective in serving minority youth with SED. The project reviewed 250 documents to synthesize…

This sociological perspective on multicultural education focuses on racial and cultural groups, but accents class and power correlates. The results of the civil rights movement took the nation to visions of integration, and when these faltered, to the recognition of diversity in the form of cultural pluralism, which nonetheless implies structural…

This paper reports the results of a study of changes in the social distribution of mathematics achievement for a cohort of public high school students. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) the study sought to identify school characteristics which were significantly correlated with changes in achievement differences from grade 9 to grade 11…

The role of behavioral adjustment in placing middle school students at risk academically is examined using 23 middle school teachers' and 378 parents' ratings of 389 children (53 percent blacks and 47 percent whites) on Conner's Parent Rating Scale and Conner's Teacher Rating Scale. The average rating on the scales for both sets of ratings is…

The impact of cultural variables on the clinical and personality assessment of Asian Americans is discussed, with emphasis on Chinese Americans. Any assessment procedures must take into account the diversity of Asian Americans, who belong to more than 29 distinct subgroups that are heterogeneous in language, religion, custom, degree of…

Data on 1980 college and university enrollments and trends observed for the preceding several years are presented. Information is provided on enrollment in institutions of higher education by control and level of institution, student sex, and attendance status of student, major field of study, and race/ethnicity. Specific data include: enrollment…

This report examines the role of schools and "outside" social and economic influences in young people's lives, focusing particularly on the impact that participation in extracurricular activities has on racial tensions and students' self-images. It is based on data collected from a national sample of tenth graders in the 1980 "High…

Previous research has shown that future roles and plans are affected by race, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES). However, almost all studies have focused on isolated aspects of socialization, such as the occupational plans of white males and the family plans of white females. To investigate the impact of social class, sex-role attitudes, and…

This paper reviews the hallmark studies of field dependence-independence and considers the evidence for sex and ethnic differences in cognitive style. Research has traditionally linked females' early verbal superiority with field dependence and males' superior visuospatial skills with field independence. Studies challenging this picture cite…