English as a second language (ESL) programs in community colleges are as diverse in the models they follow as the students they serve. This volume provides a detailed look at how faculty and administrators are tailoring their ESL programs to best serve the needs of their students and the missions of their institutions. The authors of the thirteen…

The 12th Annual Building on Family Strengths Conference was held from June 23rd through June 25th 2005 in Portland, Oregon. Highlights included: (1) An information-packed keynote address by Dr. Richard M. Lerner on promoting positive youth development through enhancing the assets of communities; (2) An exciting research plenary panel session that…

This study examined the relationship between high-stakes testing pressure and student achievement across 25 states. Standardized portfolios were created for each study state. Each portfolio contained a range of documents that told the "story" of accountability implementation and impact in that state. Using the "law of comparative…

Adequate yearly progress (AYP) on No Child Left Behind criteria was examined for a randomly selected sample of districts that qualify for the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP). The sample involved 10% of districts that were eligible for the Small Rural Schools Achievement (SRSA) program and 10% that were eligible for the Rural and…

The primary purpose of this study was the naturalistic assessment of growth in oral English proficiency of Hispanic American limited English proficient (LEP) students in a paired reciprocal learning format. Subjects were fifth-grade students in a summer English-as-a-Second-Language class. Twelve students in a paired learning format and 12 in a…

This volume is a mixture of research reviews, theoretical syntheses, and empirical analyses addressing issues in the sociology of education. Following an introduction by Aaron M. Pallas, the book is divided into eight chapters: (1) "The Sociology of Education: Its Development in the United States" (Robert Dreeben); (2) "In…

This profile is a "biographical sketch" of the nation's students based on information gathered in the 1986 and 1988 National Assessments of Educational Progress (NAEP) as part of their surveys of proficiencies in subject areas. The report is based primarily on data from the 1988 assessment, in which about 79,000 students in grades 4, 8,…

This book contains 13 papers resulting from roundtable discussions at the 1993 Society for Research in Child Development Meeting. The overall intent of the papers is to plan the course for child health care, public policy, and developmental research into the next century. The book is divided into three parts, each covering one topic. Research…

This chapter addresses the Chicano schooling experience by presenting an overview of the conditions and outcomes of Chicano schooling problems. School failure among Chicano students refers to their persistently, pervasively, and disproportionately low academic achievement. For example, in 1979 the average number of years Chicanos remained in…

This chapter addresses the theoretical and empirical knowledge bases related to bilingualism and second language acquisition in Chicano children. Research concerning bilingual acquisition has found that the linguistic, cognitive, and social characters of the bilingual child develop simultaneously. Furthermore, all three areas of development are…

A persistent problem in U.S. educational research has been how to explain the continuing low performance on standardized tests by certain racial and ethnic minority-group students, such as Chicanos. This chapter identifies abusive practices stemming from standardized testing that help to shape school failure among Chicano students, and discusses…

White, Black, and Hispanic students were studied during their transition from school or work to a community college. Students (N=71) at the College of Lake County (CLC) in Illinois attended focus groups formed according to race or ethnic group (White, Black, or Hispanic) in the spring and fall semesters to discuss their goals, experience, and…

This manual describes the PACT (Parent and Community Team) for School Success concept, which was developed from insights and techniques gained from three dropout and intervention projects with high-risk junior high school youth and families. PACT focuses on ways to initiate and maintain a group that meets frequently to create ongoing cohesive…

This study examined the reality of the experience of the labor market for new college faculty, especially faculty of color, and identified common myths in the academic labor market. Recipients (n=298) of prestigious graduate fellowships who had received their Ph.D.s since 1989 participated in telephone interviews about their job market…

This exploratory study examines several facets of everyday perspectives on merit and the meritocratic allocation of rewards and opportunities, focusing on race-targeted, affirmative action admissions of Blacks and Latinos to law schools, medical schools, and Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. Subjects were 32 white, male college…