Used hierarchical linear modeling to explore the effects of the social context of Chapter 1 prekindergarten classrooms on 4-year-olds' learning. Found that children made smaller gains on the Preschool Inventory over the preschool year in classrooms with higher concentrations of minorities, children with special needs, recent immigrants, and…

Responds to Scarr and McCartney's (1988) Bermudian study. Cites recently published research to support a conclusion that poverty alone does not predict school disadvantage so much as poor parents frequently having low motivation and less than high school graduation. (RJC)

Responds to Levenstein's criticism of Scarr and McCartney's independent evaluation of Levenstein's Mother-Child Home Program. It is claimed that experimental evaluations of intervention programs are often more critical than nonexperimental ones. (RJC)

Studied the sociocultural context in which Brazilian children acquire and use everyday mathematics in terms of currency use. Participants were 105 children, ages 4 to 11, and their parents. Found decreased use of currency with increasing age. Children also used currency to aid their problem solving and progressed from global estimates to the…