This article explores how pre-existing structures within the educational system impede the academic achievement of many African-American learners and contribute to low self-concept, mislabeling, and placement in lower academic tracks. Methodologies and strategies needed to change these practices and/or to limit their ill effects are suggested.…

This article reviews research findings that indicate the schooling of minority students is being jeopardized by heightened anxiety over school safety and the advent of "zero tolerance" regulations. A means for a more constructive focus is discussed that calls for ethical considerations, cross-cultural literacy, and behavior management and…

Using Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, which explains how social class influences transmission of educational inequality, this article questions the extent to which various forms of capital also apply to ethnic minorities. Discusses a study of Dutch, Surinamese, Turkish, and Moroccan students, which found that there was no mediating effect…

This article addresses issues of ethics, power, and privilege within the context of educating African American learners with disabilities and gifts and talents, critical issues in education affecting African American learners, and the role of special education teacher educators and special and gifted teacher practitioners as change agents.…

Research indicates that a disproportionate number of minority students are assigned to special education programs in urban school districts. Oftentimes, these programs are inadequate and they deny minority students with special needs a free appropriate public education. These concerns are not only applicable to urban public schools; research also…

One of the most frequently studied factors relating to the rise of educational inequalities is the selectivity of the education system. Selectivity often gives rise to inequalities in educational opportunities. The Czech Republic exhibits large inequalities in educational achievement and relatively steep socio-economic gradients in all…

This article explores sex bias in curricular materials for elementary and secondary schools. Sex bias is defined as a set of unconscious behaviors that, in themselves, are often trivial and generally favorable. Although these behaviors do not hurt if they happen only once, they can cause a great deal of harm if a pattern develops that serves to…

Noting that the English-Only movement (which advocates that English be the official and only language used in the United States) dramatically influences the lives of language minority children, this Digest first examines the ideologies undergirding the English-Only movement. It then reviews the consequences of imposing this legislation on the…

In March 1993, Laubach Literacy Action (LLA) convened a nine-member women's focus group to identify barriers and issues that make it difficult for a woman to achieve her literacy goals. Six new readers and three program administrators participated. A brainstorming session identified an initial set of issues and/or barriers to women who want to…

The monograph addresses legal issues involving discrimination against handicapped persons and the key legal requirement of reasonable accommodation. Four chapters in Part I examine background issues, including definitions and statistical overviews of handicaps; historical attitudes toward handicapped persons and an analysis of the extent of…

For many Black and Hispanic students, and especially low-income minority students, attending Montgomery County Public Schools (Rockville, Maryland) in the hope of getting a good education is a risky proposition at best, and may be seriously detrimental to their educational and personal development at the very worst. This conclusion was reached by…

Title IX, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1975 as part of the Education Amendments, is a public law that prohibits sex discrimination against students and employees and provides them with equal access to courses and to employment in education agencies, including public school systems. Designed to be used in conjunction with a video by the same…

This essay, written from the point of view of a social researcher with a direct personal involvement in the cases studied, discusses how public schools, as universally accessible moral communities, engage in patterns of systematic exclusion. Through three case studies of public secondary schools in which groups of students have been situated…

Regional desegregation centers provide technical assistance and training to public school personnel and other government agencies in the areas of race, sex, and national origin desegregation, in order to provide all students with equitable opportunities to achieve educational excellence. This evaluation guide for Title IX Federal Regulations and…

The Australian education system is denying equity and social justice to ethnic minorities and women. This paper examines the development of Australia's educational policy for those two groups. It argues that the educational disadvantages they have experienced have been enhanced by the marginalization of the issues. Policies such as multicultural…