This dissertation disaggregates the "Hispanic" category to examine the various factors shaping the educational trajectories of students who encompass this large ethnic group. This project consists of three studies, each presenting the perspectives of principal stakeholders: families, schools, and a community-based educational initiative.…

ONE MAJOR PROBLEM IN EDUCATION HAS BEEN TO FIND A METHOD FOR CLASSIFYING STUDENTS THAT WOULD RESULT IN THE GREATEST POSSIBLE GAINS FOR THE STUDENTS AND FACILITATE THE BEST TEACHING TECHNIQUES. EDUCATORS SEEKING ANSWERS TO THIS PROBLEM HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH DIVIDING CLASSES INTO GROUPS OF A MORE HOMOGENEOUS NATURE, USUALLY ON THE BASIS OF…

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…

In December 1968, Teachers College, Columbia University and the Board of Education in Plainfield, New Jersey initiated a study of the policies and procedures concerning student grouping in the Plainfield School System. As the study proceeded, however, an effort was made to examine other aspects of the operation of the schools which related to the…