This paper reanalyzed data from the classic 1966 study "Equality of Educational Opportunity," or "Coleman Report." It addressed the issue of whether teacher characteristics, including verbal ability and race, influenced "synthetic gain scores" of students (mean test scores of upper grade students in a school minus…

This essay discusses multicultural education in the context of responding to an article in a national magazine, which critiqued multicultural education. This essay argues that the article, "School Daze" (Louis Menand) in "Harper's Bazaar" magazine in September, 1992, oversimplifies and misrepresents key issues of multicultural…

This annual report provides information on certificates and degrees awarded by Colorado's publicly and privately supported higher education institutions from fiscal years 1988 through 1993. Data and comparative analysis are provided on degrees awarded by institution type, degree type (including information on degree type by gender and ethnicity),…

Education professionals have long known that family background is a stronger predictor of academic success than are school or teacher characteristics. The past 30 years have seen a series of drastic alterations in patterns of family living in the United States, and these changes mean that a substantial number of youngsters are being born or are…

Data from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (SSHE) indicate that men of color represent 13.1 percent of administrative positions and 6.42 percent of faculty positions, while women of color hold 9.66 percent of administrative positions and 4.05 percent of faculty positions. A study was conducted to compare the perceptions of 32 SSHE…

Students with high scores (top third) on the essay portion of an Advanced Placement Examination (AP) (College Board) and low scores (bottom third) on the multiple-choice portion of the same examination were compared with students whose performance showed the opposite pattern. Across examinations in different subject areas (history, English, and…

The cultural crisis in the United States poses a challenge for educators to educate for diversity. According to T. Cross (1988), there are six stages of cultural competence that allow effective cross-cultural functioning. Educators must encourage the movement from the first stage of seeking to destroy another culture to the final advanced cultural…

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…