This chapter examines how studies focused on the same topic--disproportionality in special education--can generate vastly different conclusions about its sources and causes. By analyzing existing disagreements in the field, we explore essential questions about what constitutes high-quality and relevant evidence when seeking to understand how,…

This study reviews 20 years (1990-2010) of scholarly literature on parent involvement related to Latino parents. Parent involvement behaviors of Latino parents were identified and analyzed according to the dimensions of culture theoretical framework--specifically, the dimension of individualism-collectivism (Hofstede, 1984, 1997; Triandis, 1995;…

This meta-analysis addresses whether achievement goal researchers are using different labels for the same constructs or putting the same labels on different constructs. We systematically examined whether conceptual and methodological differences in the measurement of achievement goals moderated achievement goal intercorrelations and relationships…

This is a reprint of "Song As a Measure of Man," a recent publication by the Fine Arts Program of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. "Song As a Measure of Man" was an outcome of an intensive two-day related arts workshop concerned with "Cantometrics," the first public presentation of Alan Lomax's work in seven…

Members of minority groups in Britain need to explore new terms to describe their ethnicity, terms that establish them as part of the British mainstream first, and then describe their cultural heritage, so that the extended experience of more than one culture is recognized. (SLD)

Since the 1950s the assumption that prejudice or ethnocentrism is a single entity with many causes has governed social scientific work on prejudice. The way society talks about prejudices has become an obstacle to real understanding. This book offers an alternative theory that is a claim that different prejudices are characteristic of different…

A set of procedures for coding internal state words (those words representing mental states and perceptual experiences), developed for application to data on the language of young children and those with whom they converse, is described in this report. The report first discusses the rationale for studying cultural variation in vocabulary use, the…

This paper examines the cultural differences that arise because of disability, ethnicity, and social status and their impact on assessment practices, programming, goal setting, and the special education processes established by legislation, especially in light of the over-representation of minorities in special education. Suggestions for resolving…

Even as conceptual models, distinctions between "rural" and "urban" have become blurred--by changes in transportation, telecommunications, computer technology, business expertise, formal education, health care, and citizenry expectations/knowledge. Two typologies describing future trends and incorporating changes in rural/urban…

Defining Native studies programs in Canada and the U.S., this essay presents: (1) Rationale for Native Studies (recognition on the part of the majority of cultural differences; the emergence of an affirmative Native identity; and declining enrollments in colleges); (2) Structural Organization Alternatives (as part of an existing department; as an…