Analyzes the discourse styles, including linguistic practices, of African-American students at an urban high school. Concludes that students use Ebonics or Black English as the norm against which students evaluate other speech practices and that students construct standard English as a vernacular, a discourse to be disrespected…

Interviewed 420 street youths in a midwestern city to analyze their sexual behaviors. Ninety-one percent were sexually active, and nearly half were engaged in sex for survival. Discusses the need to coordinate comprehensive social services to prevent an increase in the number of street youth. (SLD)

Reviews articles about Chicago Longitudinal Study and determines that the key questions are: How are circumstances and outcomes linked? How strongly do circumstances affect outcomes? How can school psychologists use prevention research to improve the academic and social well-being of the children they serve? Suggests that school psychologists need…

Examines personal life events and neighborhood stress as determinants of alcohol use among urban, minority youth. Analyses were constructed to examine the ability of psychosocial functioning to moderate relations between life events, neighborhood stress, and alcohol use. Both positive and negative life events and neighborhood stress uniquely…

Discusses findings of a study on resilience and protective factors among 131 urban African American adolescents. Identifies stressors related to environmental conditions that adolescents must overcome. Findings suggest that significant interaction does occur among stressors and protective factors in such a manner that they enhance educational…

Uses lifespan and ecological frameworks to investigate the factors associated with early adolescent sexual activity. Results from 803 African American and Hispanic adolescents suggest a high prevalence of early sexual activity, corresponding to higher rates of childbearing and risky sexual behavior when compared to sexual activity initiated in…

Examines how the minority drug problem is framed in terms of anomie and underclass models suggesting that drug subcultures in urban black areas are formed as an adaptation to aggregate community conditions. The article considers how researchers use ecological and ethnographic data to back up claims that drug subcultures are a response to inner…

Traces the development and history of reform of the Massachusetts State Department of Human Services, which departed abruptly from a tradition of institutionalizing young offenders. The Massachusetts approach demonstrates the elements of successful intervention with young offenders through intensive services, community-based programs, small case…

Discusses seven of the most common myths and misconceptions about students at risk, and argues that the Goals 2000 educational reform movement could result in negative consequences for this group unless policymakers and practitioners develop a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of this population. (SLD)

Discusses the Los Angeles Public Library's TeenS'cape, located in the middle of the city's Central Library. This technically sophisticated library space, opened after the 1992 L.A. riots, provides custom furnishings, postmodernist architecture, and equipment and materials specifically catered to the local teens, amid the culture of…

Describes various organizations that offer programs and services for youth in their early teens. Explains the philosophy of positive youth development that is an emerging theme in this long-standing but newly self-conscious field. Reviews principles of best practice and key implementation challenges. (SLD)

Presents results of a study of the home literacy experiences of three Dominican preschool children in New York City and examines the implications for educational practice. Data suggest that children found print materials an interesting part of their world, and that they engaged in literacy play and also explored literacy while watching television…

Examines if literature for urban youth can reflect reality and validate the significance of the minority individual as well as give them a vision for a better future and a sense that it is attainable. Identifies a strong correlation between the fictional experience as expressed in 20 novels and the characteristics of the urban life of minority…

Reports on a community-based science project that was coproduced with urban teenagers and elaborates on the creation of a practicing culture of science learning. Concludes that in a practicing culture of science learning, science is relevant since it was created from the participants' concerns, interests, and experiences inside and outside…

Apache Indian's spectacular performance of the identity of "Jamaican" dancehall DJ exemplifies the problematic politics of acculturation in "postcolonial" Britain. Born in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, a major centre of Caribbean and South Asian migration, this multilingual, border-crossing, urban youth appropriates…