This case study reports on a doctoral research project conducted in a school using critical discourse analysis to examine the discourse of youth 'disaffection'. The study aimed to identify how some students acquired the label 'disaffected' and considered the extent to which the quality of relationships between teachers and students contributed to…

In the United States, approximately 2.5 million students are diagnosed as having a learning disability and the majority of those children are placed in special education because of an inability to read as expected. As a result of this diagnosis, these children may be placed in special education classrooms--classrooms that are separate from the…

This book serves as a guide for overcoming the challenge of improving schools. It provides a comprehensive view of issues related to serious school reform and describes appropriate attitudes, concepts, and tools needed to rethink and redesign American education. A 5-year study of 10 schools in the Coalition of Essential Schools already involved in…

This book is about the genre of school stories, that is, stories that deal with the education and the educational experiences of boys and girls. The book examines specific authors and specific works from the 1840s to the present, focusing on "crossgendering"--men writing about girls and women writing about boys. The chapters are, as…

America's urban schools have come under pressure for their racial segregation and for a rigid traditionalism which alienates many students. Magnet schools have been established in several cities to attack both of these problems with attractive innovative educational programs which are intended to draw students of different races as volunteers.…

PIRLS is the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. This rigorous international survey compares the reading attainment and attitudes to reading of over 200,000 9- and 10-year-old children in 41 countries. It is the only international study to provide information on the reading habits of primary-aged children: the survey collects…

A case study of the unique City University of New York Bernard Baruch College is presented. The school is unique because for 130 years it charged no tuition to most of its students (and even today is cost-free to many) and because its programs have so closely matched the needs of the city of which it is a part. A description is provided of how the…

This book describes the context of school retention and evaluates its effects by tracking the experiences of a large representative sample of Baltimore (Maryland) school children from first grade through middle school. The first chapter is a discussion of major issues of retention such as: (1) why the topic is often pushed aside in schools; (2)…

Offering insights and ideas for school leaders, the news media, and the public to consider, this book examines how the print and electronic media portray one of the crucial news stories of our time: the education of 50 million American youngsters. The book maintains that, while the school-media connection should be "a natural" for both…

Thirty-one mature women students of different races and social classes were interviewed during the years 1988 and 1989 to determine how they separate and/or connect family and education. The women were interviewed either at the beginning and end of their first year of study, the beginning and end of their third year of study, or after they had…

Positing the relevance of well-being and social support to educational achievement, this book explores the status of children's health and its importance to the education of young children. A mail questionnaire survey of 1031 of approximately 20,000 Primary Education Schools in England and Wales in the fall of 1993 yielded 620 replies; a response…

This handbook, written for the parents of a school-age child, is organized into an "Introduction" and five chapters. The purpose of the handbook is to help the parent get their child a good education by providing ideas about working with the child, with his teachers, and with other parents as well as using the home and community to help the child…

The Sudbury Valley School is a nontraditional private school founded in 1968 as a place where each student could be trusted fully to make every decision about how to grow into an adult. This book describes a study conducted in 1991 to determine what became of Sudbury students after they left. Questionnaires and interviews were used to gather data…

This book reports on a study of the perceptions of Oklahoma American Indians about their childhood experiences in government and church-sponsored boarding schools. Drawing on symbolic anthropology, the boarding school experience is interpreted to be a complex cultural symbol and symbolic process that contributes to group collectivity and belonging…

A study examined the school-to-work transition of a group of 16-year-olds from two mining communities in Nottinghamshire, England. During the study, the 174 school leavers were interviewed within 6 months prior to their leaving school. Nine months later, 103 of the original 174 youths were interviewed again. Finally, the youths were asked to…