There are two causes that have been suggested as the major contributors to poor student achievement. One view attributes student underachievement to educational factors such as inadequate standards and poor teachers. The other view sees societal factors as the main contributor to low student achievement. This commentary looks at one societal…

Background: In educational policies, two discourses on gender have existed since the 1980s. I call them the "gender equality discourse" and the "boy discourse". The gender equality discourse in education is based on international and national declarations and plans, and is focused predominantly on the position of girls and…

This article presents the author's critique on "Differentiating Low Performance of the Gifted Learner: Achieving, Underachieving, and Selective Consuming Students". The authors of the article titled "Differentiating Low Performance of the Gifted Learner: Achieving, Underachieving, and Selective Consuming Students" investigated…

Without a doubt, poverty has a negative influence on student achievement, especially when achievement is measured by state-mandated standardized tests. However, some bureaucrats, such as state commissioners of education and even state governors, continue to downplay the influence of poverty on student achievement. New Jersey's Governor Chris…

This article presents the author's response to commentaries on "Differentiating Low Performance of the Gifted Leaner: Achieving, Underachieving, and Selective Consuming Students." The commentaries have focused on two issues: (1) the merits of distinguishing selective consumers from other students; and (2) the quality of the study's methodology.…

Post-Marxist critical sociology of education has influenced the development of indigenous ("kaupapa") Maori educational theory and research. Its effects are examined in four claims made for Maori education by indigenous theorists. The claims are: indigenous kaupapa Maori education is a revolutionary initiative; it is a cultural solution…

This article presents the authors' critique on "Differentiating Low Performance of the Gifted Learner: Achieving, Underachieving, and Selective Consuming Students" (Figg, Low, McCormick, & Rogers 2012). The authors of "Differentiating Low Performance of the Gifted Learner: Achieving, Underachieving, and Selective Consuming Students" endeavored to…

This article is a position paper, based on, and supported by, the extensive literature on the topic of Maori underachievement in education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It places emphasis on what underachieving Maori students need to reach their full potential and ways in which educationalists can assist. I am of mixed heritage raised amongst three…

Boys' literacy underachievement continues to garner significant attention and has been identified by journalists, educational policymakers, and scholars in the field as the cause for much concern. It has been established that boys perform less well than girls on literacy benchmark or standardized tests. According to the National Assessment of…

This article provides a brief rejoinder to Gorard and Smith's reply to an article I published in a previous issue of British Journal of Sociology of Education. In that original article I provided a critical review of their quantitative research on gender and education in the United Kingdom. In their reply to this article, Gorard and Smith seem to…

This book calls attention to the policies and practices that discriminate against the silent majority of students in the American educational system. Arguments presented emphasize the collateral damage caused to average students by legislative mandates, administrative policies, teaching practices, parenting beliefs, and adherence to strict…

School is sometimes framed as a place for preparing, a place for becoming college and career ready. At times this approach positions school as an important space "within" the world of college and careers, envisioned perhaps as Dewey imagined it, as a safe place to try things, a space where real work of participation in society could be done but in…

The first decade of the current Labour Government had been characterised by a whole raft of education reforms aimed at driving up standards--a focus on early literacy and numeracy, standards funds to push up exam results, the much greater use of technology to track individual pupils' progress and to ensure a growing number achieved the benchmark…

Stimulant drugs (methylphenidate and amphetamine) have been used successfully for decades to improve the behavioral impairments of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention in children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A voluminous literature supports the benefits of stimulants for improving classroom manageability…

In "British Journal of Sociology of Education" Volume 29 number 3, 2008, Connolly presented what he termed a "critical review" of some of our previous work on the relative attainment of male and female students in UK schools. He proposed three general areas for criticism--our use of attainment gaps, our consideration of…