Introduces a journal issue that is intended to regenerate research on minorities in elementary schools and focus on important questions that have been underexplored. Discusses declines in research on minorities, and the problems and possible directions of new research.(SKC)

Six desegregated first grade classrooms in predominantly white working-class communities near a large Midwestern city were observed in order to explore ways in which black males' school experiences differ from those of other students. Twenty percent of the 139 students in the classrooms were black males. Of the six teachers, all of whom were…

Ethnographic observations and teacher interviews were conducted in desegregated first grade classrooms to examine teachers' attitudes toward black female students, black females' orientations toward teachers, and black females' peer expectations. The research indicated that: (1) teachers considered black girls to have average or slightly below…