This study discusses the effectiveness of a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program spanning grades six through eight in a traditional, urban school district located in Northeastern Ohio. The history and expressed need for STEM education within post-steel producing and economically depressed regions are discussed. Important…

Using Head Start as an example of a compensatory social program based on a liberal egalitarian view of justice, this paper shows how all such programs are fundamentally flawed. In spite of any good intentions, by creating a discourse of deficiency and attempting amelioration through segregation this approach contains the seeds of its own failure.…

Progress in secondary education today is measured primarily through high stakes testing administered on a state-by-state basis. While states may require a common assessment instrument, how the objectives are to be taught, however, is generally up to the schools. This results in debates among educators as to the best curricula for all students.…

This thesis undertakes an exploration of teaching at the margins in an effort to articulate teaching assumptions to improve education of multicultural groups. The methodology of retrospective dialogue is explained in chapter 1. Chapter 2 describes two theories that have been advanced for the education of poor/immigrant/working class…

The major premise of this paper concerns the existence of an intrinsic connection between the institutional culture of school and students' dispositions to learning. The data presented shows three things in particular. These are firstly, the strong mono-culture of the Israeli school, secondly, a virtual absence of knowledge, understanding and…

This longitudinal study assessed differences in classroom arrangements (peer tutoring versus teacher instruction) and student behaviors for students of low versus high socioeconomic status (SES). Results with 94 teachers and 416 students indicate that peer tutoring was more effective in increasing academic engagement of low-SES students than…

The arts survive at the margins of education primarily as curriculum enrichments. However, evidence is emerging that shows that arts education can have powerful effects on student achievement, with the greatest gains for students in the lowest socioeconomic status quartile, those most at risk of academic failure. Arts integration is an…