Objective: Responding to the need for more foster families to provide care for increasing numbers of children coming into care, this study was designed to understand the motivations and needs of foster parents in order to improve recruitment and retention. To meet this goal, the study identified characteristics of current foster families,…

With No Child Left Behind's call for highly qualified teachers, the stakes for recruiting and retaining teachers have never been more important. Alabama, like other states, has struggled to develop policies and programs that effectively staff all classrooms with quality educators. The Center for Teaching Quality, with the support of SERVE, has…

This study provides an extensive test of Ogbu's oppositional culture theory that accounts for student maturation over time. Using data from the Maryland Adolescence Development In Context Study (MADICS), I test the proposition that blacks resist school more than whites, and that this difference grows with age. Analyses were conducted across 24…

Social Science Research of the past several decades provides valuable insight into the processes of prejudice acquisition and reduction. This paper lists and briefly describes the following 15 findings based on this research and their implications regarding prejudice and what works to reduce it: (1) attitudes about interpersonal differences begin…

In an effort to bridge the gap between Spanish foreign language classes for the monolingual English speaker and the needs of the Hispanic bilingual student wishing to have Spanish instruction, a bilingual teacher trainer has designed Spanish courses specifically for the Hispanic bilingual. To give recognition to bilinguals' existing linguistic…

Previous research suggests that observers of spouse abuse are likely to arrive at overly dispositional causal explanations for the abusive behavior, and reject both the abusing spouse and his victim. As part of a study examining observers' perceptions of a spouse abuse incident under varying conditions, 160 college students read a vignette about…

A recent study examined the socioeconomic status (SES), parent participation, teacher awareness, and academic achievement of 76 elementary school students. Results were obtained through interpretation of data and review of relevant literature. A strong positive correlation was found between a student's SES and academic achievement in school. Some…

Many studies of dropouts have examined race, gender, ethnic background, and socioeconomic status as factors predisposing students to drop out of school. A study was conducted to examine the school-related factors influencing high school students' decision to drop out, as well as the attitudes of high school dropouts toward public education today.…

The absence of peace is one of the greatest threats to the continued existence of life on this planet. This paper uses the definition of peace given by the General Conference of UNESCO at its 18th session, whereby peace is seen as a process, not an event. Education is vital to eliminating prejudice, which is the foundation of injustice, disunity,…

Research has shown that: (1) Physiological and psychological aspects of stress and burnout are equated with emotional exhaustion and (2) Individual responses to relationships and the working environment are based, to a large extent, upon the individual's expectations. A model was developed that accounts for individual perceptions of reasonable…

A study hypothesized that there was a general tendency among parents for less positive evaluation of their school or school district than is forthcoming from teachers. Using a revised version of Oaster's Parent and Teacher Attitude Scales, data were collected from 35 teachers and 35 parents in an inner-city elementary school. Opinions were sought…

This annotated bibliography is a supplement to one published in 1975. It contains similar information and is organized in almost the same fashion. A few categories were added, and a comparison of the two tables of contents will reveal the differences. The first section examines the attitudes of the poor. Some of the areas specifically dealt with…

The purpose of this study was to explore whether "holistic" instruction is an effective way to improve student attitudes toward instruction. Study participants were students in two Mathematics 111 classes at Malcolm X College (Illinois), 27 in the experimental and 27 in the control group. The experimental group received holistic…

In Boston a number of factors contributed to the prolonged community resistance to school desegregation and busing to achieve it. First, for ten years prior to 1974, Boston residents had been assured that their children had a right to attend neighborhood schools and that this right would never be abridged. Thus, the court order to utilize bus…

Self talk (thoughts about one's self and own performance while learning or working) can affect cognitive and learning strategies that in turn affect specific learning techniques. Negative self talk can interfere with learning since it reinforces feelings of failure, thereby increasing the probability of continued failure, and maintains an…