Bureaucracies are often perceived as inflexible, impersonal, hierarchical, and too devoted to rules and red tape. But David Labaree makes a case for these characteristics being a positive in the world of public education. U.S. schools are built within a liberal democratic system, where the liberal pursuit of self-interest is often in tension with…

The United States experienced a tremendous expansion of higher education after the Second World War. However, this expansion has not led to a substantial reduction to class inequalities at elite universities, where the admissions process is growing even more selective. In his classic studies of French education and society, Pierre Bourdieu…

Examines ways in which current United Kingdom school-choice policies interact with parental pressures on their children to achieve excellence and how these pressures affect the emotional health of their middle- and working-class children as they make the transition from primary to secondary school. Finds serious emotional consequences (exam…

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,…

Language minority parent involvement in schools should not be judged by white, middle-class models. Minority parents must bring new and different knowledge to schools to ensure equitable policies, bilingual education, and support for diversity. (SK)

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 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…

Low income parents from diverse ethnic groups and geographical locations express their hopes to be directly related to the success their children can achieve in school. This paper considers ways in which the standpoint of low income parents might be recognized and respected in public schools. There are many obstacles that stand in the way of…

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…

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 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…

This study sought to determine the self-concept level, expectancy of success in school subjects, and actual achievement in those subjects of disadvantaged youths in high school in comparison to advantaged boys. The subjects (Ss) consisted of 100 disadvantaged and 100 advantaged boys from an urban integrated high school. No Ss were in the college…

Fifty-four middle and lower class, black and white adolescents were observed interacting with their mothers during a discussion of seven child rearing problems. Maternal references to a range of disciplinary measures were identified, analyzed, and related to the subjects' scholastic performances. A factor analysis of process measures confirmed…

SEVERAL EXPERIMENTS ON THE CONCEPTUAL BEHAVIOR OF LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASS CHILDREN ARE DESCRIBED IN AN EFFORT TO CLARIFY AN APPARENT DISCREPANCY BETWEEN PREVIOUS LABORATORY FINDINGS AND OBSERVED CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE. IN THE FIRST EXPERIMENT, INDUCTIVE CONCEPT LEARNING WAS INVESTIGATED AS A FUNCTION OF SOCIAL CLASS MEMBERSHIP AND PRIOR EXPERIENCE.…

In a study of academic attribution patterns, teachers were asked to suggest causes for the successes and failures of students whose backgrounds had been manipulated to provide various combinations of social class (middle, lower), race (White, Asian American), and gender. It was found that teachers cited causes internal to the student more often…