Our increasingly diverse society has resulted in concomitant pressure on teacher education programs to prepare graduates to work with PK-12 students who may differ from them on important sociocultural dimensions such as race and ethnicity. The purpose of this article is to advance the use of a conceptual model, the solution-focused…

As states across the country continue their implementation of the Teacher Performance Assessment Portfolio (edTPA), a complex and high-stakes certification requirement for teacher certification, there are important lessons for educators and education advocates to learn from New York State's implementation. As Linda Darling-Hammond, developer and…

Critics of affirmative action policies contend that the elimination of racial preferences in college admissions would lead to a "more-able" student body. We develop a simple model comprised of three classes of college admissions--merit, race and legacy--to show that it is possible that a change in admissions policy that reduces racial preferences…

Studies illustrate that achievement gaps between poor and non-poor children already exist at kindergarten (Lee & Burkham, 2002). The larger the gap at the time children enter school, the harder it is to close the gap. This article reviews a case study of one Midwest school district and their attempt at reducing the achievement gap through the…

This study examines the social acceptance of young (under-18) pregnancy by assessing people's acceptance of young pregnancy and abortion in relation to deprivation. A cross-sectional survey design was conducted in two relatively affluent and two relatively deprived local authorities in London (n=570). Contrary to previous findings, participants…

This paper discusses (a) the role of cognitive and noncognitive ability in shaping adult outcomes, (b) the early emergence of differentials in abilities between children of advantaged families and children of disadvantaged families, (c) the role of families in creating these abilities, (d) adverse trends in American families, and (e) the…