The authors investigated cultural resourcefulness among seven Black middle-class families who proactively collaborated to ensure their children's academic excellence in a highly racialized suburban community in southern California. Their children achieved high grades and successfully entered and completed higher education at elite U.S.…

Over the past 20 years, both charter schools and pre-kindergarten education have taken on increasingly prominent roles in the schooling of America's children. Charter schools in 43 states now serve more than 2.6 million students--roughly six percent of all students attending public schools. More than two-thirds of four-year-olds attend some form…

This multi-institutional study examines differences between working-class and middle/upper-class students at large, public research universities. Significant differences in factors related to working-class students' social integration (including satisfaction, campus climate, and sense of belonging) and academic integration (including collaborative…

The purpose of this study was to (a) understand foster parents' perceptions of their parental roles and their involvement in their foster children's academic work; (b) understand their perceptions of their experiences in interacting with their foster children's public school; and (c) provide suggestions to enhance the parent-school collaboration…

This project focuses on the policies and practices of school boards (or mayors or others who govern public schools), and how their priorities can make a tangible difference in the academic success of kids living in poor communities. Instead of focusing on deficits of poverty, the researchers wanted to stress school board action as an effective…

Students in Room 501 were exploring and negotiating their lives as transnational citizens. In a globalized world of instantaneous information and communication, Latino students are shaping, morphing, and evolving into a new generation. This study highlights one group of students who were aspiring toward middle class, which is not the typical…

In this study, the authors examined the school experiences of middle-class African American parents and students, because they are largely overlooked in the professional literature when it comes to underachievement and parent involvement. Although No Child Left Behind (NCLB) highlights parent involvement and school accountability through the use…

The most exciting innovation in education policy in the last decade is the emergence of highly effective schools in our nation's inner cities, schools where disadvantaged teens make enormous gains in academic achievement. In this book, the author takes readers inside six of these secondary schools and reveals the secret to their success: they are…

PRESENTED IS AN INFORMAL REVIEW OF RESEARCH SPONSORED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ON IMPROVING THE EDUCATION OF THE STATE'S DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN. VARIOUS PROJECTS ARE EXPLORING (1) ATTITUDES AND SELF-IMAGE AMONG NEGROES, (2) THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL CLASS, ATTITUDE, AND ACHIEVEMENT, AND (3) THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCE OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN…

Freshmen of lower and middle socioeconomic status identified by the W. Lloyd Warner Index of Status Characteristics were studied to determine: (1) differences in the motives, values, attitudes, goals, aspirations, self-concepts, and interests of these two groups; (2) if any of these factors distinguish between nonachievers (GPA below 2.0) of…