PRIMARILY AN OVERVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH ON CHILD-REARING AND FAMILY LIFE PATTERNS, THIS BOOK FOCUSES ON THE LIFE OF THE VERY POOR AND COMPARES THEIR LIFE PATTERNS AND PRACTICES WITH THOSE OF MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES. THE TWO SETS OF PATTERNS ARE ANALYZED UNDER FIVE HEADINGS--MENTAL HEALTH, EDUCATION, "MORAL" CHARACTER, SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY,…

Stenographic transcript of the testimony of Dr. Alexander Plante of the Connecticut State Department of Education before the Senate Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity, May 5, 1970. Research data are given which support the findings of James Coleman and others that children living in urban poverty areas achieve better in classes with…

This study was conducted to find out whether extending the kindergarten day with individualized curricula would produce differences in achievement great enough to warrant the increased cost. Two pilot studies were conducted in this large suburban school district, using kindergartens from four of 17 elementary schools. Two of the schools served…

To study the effects of task and sample variation upon paired-associates (PA) performance, six third-grade and six sixth-grade classes in two urban schools were tested on two PA tasks, one pairing pictures of familiar objects (PA-CF), the other pairing nonsense syllables with Japanese "kanji" (PA-K). Hypotheses tested were: (1) Mean level of…

Mexican American and Anglo 11th grade high school students from lower and middle socioeconomic classes were compared using the locus of control, adequate achievement reality, and temporal orientations as potential correlates of scholastic performance and future education and vocational goals. The sample of 89 male and 87 female students from 3…

The development of locus of control was compared in rural Appalachian Follow Through participants and in lower and middle-class comparison groups. Participation in Follow Through did not enhance internality. A social class by sex interaction was found, and correlations between locus of control and achievement differed for social classes.…

A longitudinal study reported in this document examines the effects of integration and the implementation of an open-classroom type program on first and second grade children from lower and middle class Israeli backgrounds. Data used to support the findings presented were obtained from the results of mathematics and reading achievement tests…

A study was conducted of how children's expectations for their own school performance develop over their first-grade year and what factors influence these expectations. Expectations for performance in reading and arithmetic were studied. Both middle class and lower class (black and white) children have higher expectations than their subsequent…

A locus of control measure was administered to 431 lower and middle class children in grades one, two, four and six. Subjects did not differ significantly from each other on locus of control in grades one and two, but by fourth and sixth grades the differences had reached significance. Correlations between locus of control and achievement were…

Argues that the lower class uses language to maintain social relationships more than to communicate information, and that lower and middle class differences in language usage explain much of the academic failure of disadvantaged and minority children. Proposes a functional approach for studying how language, socialization, and academic achievement…

The United States portion of a crossnational study of coping styles suggests that children may have coping strategies that support their value systems. Participants were two random samples of equal numbers of ten- and fourteen-year-olds, boys and girls, upper-middle class and upper-lower class in communities near Chicago, Illinois, and Austin,…

Focusing on the acquisition of science processes, a study was made of the relationship of acculturation and social class to cognitive development among 1,677 lower and lower middle class students enrolled in the public high schools of three rural, 11 semi-urban, and three urban communities. Acculturation was defined at the community level in terms…

This study examined: (1) the expectations of black and white lower class first graders for their own performance in reading, arithmetic, and conduct; (2) racial differences in the relationship between parental expectations and IQ; (3) correlation between the absences and lateness of first graders with reading and arithmetic marks and with parental…

This paper reports the results of two related studies. The primary purpose of the first study (involving both nursery and first grade subjects) was to determine what evidence there is of two distinct processes basic to the control over the initiation and inhibition of inappropriate behavior on the Luria task. In the second study the focus of…

TWO GROUPS OF WHITE SIXTH-GRADE CHILDREN, MATCHED FOR INTELLIGENCE AND DIVIDED INTO AN UPPER-MIDDLE-CLASS GROUP (GROUP A) AND AN UPPER-LOWER-CLASS GROUP (GROUP B), WERE EXAMINED AFTER THEY HAD HAD A 6-WEEK SOCIAL STUDIES UNIT ON MEXICO TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, ACHIEVEMENT, AND DIRECTION OF ATTITUDE CHANGE. BOTH…