In popular culture, the age of 40 is sometimes considered "over the hill." This is decidedly not the case for the Perry Preschoolers--a cohort of low-income, predominantly African American children who 37 years ago were randomly assigned to attend a high-quality preschool program. The latest findings from the well-known longitudinal study of this…

Discussion of the role of languages in Macau focuses on three areas: forces in determination of language policy; actual language use in Macau; and prospects beyond 1999. Four main forces for language policy are identified: emergence of a middle class due to economic progress and access to higher education; arrival of well-educated, liberal…

Against the background of recent radical changes in the Canadian economy, this issue of the Canadian journal "Transition" examines the question of parents' concerns for their children's economic futures. "Changes in Family Incomes and Labour Market Participation in Post-War Canada" (David Ross and Clarence Lochhead) charts…

Intelligence tests are really only systems of classification of individuals with reference to others. Thus with such classification systems it is impossible to interpret a deficiency reflected by test scores in other than a socio-cultural frame of reference. Some 150 Black and White seventh grade children between the ages of 12 and 14 were…

PART OF A LARGER STUDY OF THE COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENTS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN, THIS EXPERIMENT EXAMINED THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MOTHERS' LANGUAGE STYLES AND THE CONCEPT ATTAINMENT OF THEIR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN. SPEECH SAMPLES WERE OBTAINED FROM 160 URBAN NEGRO MOTHERS OF FOUR SOCIOECONOMIC GROUPS (MIDDLE-CLASS, UPPER-LOWER, LOWER-LOWER, AND…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS EXPERIMENT WAS TO COMPARE THE LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR OF STANDARD AND NONSTANDARD ENGLISH SPEAKERS WHEN ASKED TO REPEAT STANDARD AND NONSTANDARD SENTENCES. THE SUBJECTS (47 THIRD AND FIFTH GRADERS AT A NEGRO SCHOOL IN WASHINGTON, D.C., AND 30 OF THEIR WHITE COUNTERPARTS AT A SUBURBAN MARYLAND SCHOOL) WERE ASKED TO REPEAT 30 TAPED…

In general, the lower-class student has been considered scholastically inferior to the child of middle-class origins. More specifically, such a child has frequently been explicitly or implicitly denied the benefits of a foreign language learning experience on the basis of his/her inability to cope with the difficulty level assumed to be inherent…

This study documents the racial attitudes and desires of middle class Negroes in greater New York City area, and explores integration versus separatism preference in the areas of schools, employment, housing, and social relationships. Middle socioeconomic status adults aged 30-55 and comprising samples of 100 each in the Bronx and Harlem were…

This paper reports on an analysis of some manifest, surface and verbal characteristics of the classroom behaviors of students and teachers in the first, sixth, and eleventh grades of urban Missouri schools selected for their composition relative to black and white population. Findings indicate that: (1) on the average verbal participation by…

The interrelationships among the three variables of intelligence, creativity, and language in a preschool, disadvantaged Negro sample were investigated. The two main hypotheses tested were: (1) The interrelationships among the three variables are lower than the interrelationships within each variable; and (2) A factor analysis indicates a factor…

Efforts to promote greater educational opportunity (compensatory spending, racial desegregation of schools, higher standards, reduced class size, and private school vouchers) have fallen short. Research indicates that middle-class schools generally work well, and any given child will do better in a middle-class than a low-income school. This paper…

Discusses the following bicultural determinants in children's learning processes: family structure, value of education, self-concept, assimilative anxiety, social adjustment, and language (verbal and nonverbal). Presents basic guidelines for teachers who work with Oriental and other minority children. (Author/GC)

Examines the informal support systems of older, recently widowed, urban females. Finds that widows with no sons receive little traditionally male types of support, but that widows with no daughters receive as much traditionally female types of support as those with daughters. (FMW)

While studying 16 middle schools engaged in "Turning Points" reforms, authors confronted a contradictory American culture that embraces democratic ends for schools, but resists democratic means to achieve them. Three demographically different schools struggled and compromised to incorporate civic virtue, thematic learning, social…

This study examined linkages between divorce, depressive/withdrawn parenting, and child adjustment problems at home and school. Middle class divorced single mother families (n=35) and 2-parent families (n=174) with a child in the fourth grade participated. Mothers and teachers completed yearly questionnaires and children were interviewed when they…