Critiques Hirsh's book, "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them," which suggests that progressive education is rampant in today's school, and all students should learn important subject matter content that should be appropriately sequenced and uniformly paced, with achievement objectively measured. Critiques Hirsh's minimization…

Reviews four books that contextually examine definitions of childhood and adolescence: "Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and Identity" (Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler); "Angels' Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and Rhetorics of the Everyday" (Ralph Cintron); "Everyday Courage: The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers"…

Reviews the book, "Contradictions of School Reform: Educational Costs of Standardized Testing," (Linda M. McNeil, 2000) which explores the effects of state- and school district-imposed accountability measures, including standardized testing, on teachers and students (most of whom are children of color) in an urban setting. The book…

Reviews six films about issues related to multicultural and social justice education in the United States: "It's Elementary: Talking about Gay Issues in School"; "Starting Small: Teaching Children Tolerance"; "In Whole Honor?"; "Children Talk about AIDS"; "Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary";…

Reviews eight recently published reports focusing on affirmative action in higher education. Discusses the following topics: (1) college admission policies; (2) minority student performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT); (3) school desegregation; and (4) minority group teachers. (FMW)

The Urban Institute organized a workshop to receive the reactions of experts to a model for helping underclass youth, the Mentor, Peer Group, and Incentive (MPI) Model. This model uses the three components of mentors, peer groups, and incentives to improve the life chances of adolescent males in socially distressed neighborhoods. Workshop…

Kozol's books examine how public schools perpetuate racial injustice, noting ethical abdication by the affluent in violation of children's innocence and capability by urban schools. Schools fail children by deforming the spirit of the poor and soothing the conscience of the rich. Kozol demands greater resources for poor students. (SM)

This ethnography of eight lower-track classrooms in two schools gives insight into the operation of the tracking system, although it implicitly accepts tracking and does not face the injustice children experience as a result of lower-track placement. Broader structural reasons underlying the tracking system are not examined. (SLD)

This report reviews six recently published books on the education of urban and minority youth, and the social and cultural environment in which they live. "The Homeless in Contemporary Society" (edited by R. D. Bingham, R. E. Green, and S. B. White), is a primer on homelessness in America. "Gender Influences in Classroom…

Kozol's book, Savage Inequalities, examines inequality between urban and suburban education and encourages suburban residents to reflect on U.S. education since the 1970s and on the role of their communities in structuring the current savage inequalities. The book suggests affluent parents successfully transmit their ideology of inequality to…