Examines the effects of linguistic and cultural diversity on the educational achievement of working class and minority students by reappraising the deficit/difference controversy of the 1960s and 1970s and examines how class and politics shape both cultural-linguistic and school-based assumptions about language and literacy. (Author/BJV)

Describes and assesses different explanations for the low reading achievement level amongst Afro-American children and critiques traditional attempts to remedy this dilemma. Recommends a holistic approach that fuses cultural difference and social structural approaches to reading and acknowledges that motivational processes are central. (RDN)

Shows how a working class Chinese-American family prepares its only child for school success. This bilingual child of immigrants is successful academically and socially. The importance of high family expectations and the goal directedness of the parents is emphasized, as is the ambivalence the parents feel toward school. (SLD)