Examines ways in which current United Kingdom school-choice policies interact with parental pressures on their children to achieve excellence and how these pressures affect the emotional health of their middle- and working-class children as they make the transition from primary to secondary school. Finds serious emotional consequences (exam…

Interviews with low-income parents revealed that they were aware of the class character of local schools and believed that high-income schools were superior. Ninety-four percent favored social class school desegregation, believing that their children would thereby obtain a better education and better preparation for social interaction in adult…

Based on the assumption that fair tax systems should consider differences in ability to pay resulting from income sharing within families, this publication analyzes the effects of three strategies for federal tax reform on families raising children: the Armey/Shelby flat tax, the Nunn/Domenici USA Tax System, and the Gephardt 10-Percent Tax. Part…

Discusses a study that examined 11 parents' assessment of their involvement in their children's education. Except for two divorced mothers, the majority of participants consistently provided advocacy/support to their children throughout their entire school lives. Only one parent exercised real decision-making involvement in her child's school.…

Summarizes an investigation designed to demonstrate the utility of selective recall as a partial index of a preferred attitude. The experiment, which dealt with maternal attitudes on three child-rearing themes, revealed social class differences in the selective recall of information related to the importance of physical affection and…

Describes insights gleaned from informal conversations with 27 parents actively involved in their children's schooling. Stereotypes do not apply. Although wealthier white parents receive more encouragement to participate in decision making and school-related activities, they sometimes support working- class/minority causes and favor school…

Disagrees with research showing that socioeconomic status has little impact on parental involvement in children's education. From the author's own experience, working-class parents are as concerned as affluent ones about children's progress, but have less energy/time for participation. In other research, a new assessment instrument may help…

Investigated 40 working-class and 40 middle-class parents' beliefs about the meaning of schooling by conducting in-depth interviews. Results indicated that middle-class parents tended to value schooling more for the credentials schools offered, whereas working class parents tended to value schooling more for the learning opportunities (applied and…

Examined the speech of middle- and working-class black and white parents to their preschool children during picture identification, free play, and a meal. The study found the groups similar in the level and form of parental labeling and different in the information supplied by parents, parental direction of child behavior, and parental sensitivity…

Examines the modes of accommodation to America of working- and middle-class mothers of Cuban heritage living in Miami, Florida, in terms of language proficiencies. Findings indicate that working-class mothers encourage their children to learn English in order to succeed, a subtractive form of bilingualism, whereas middle-class mothers encourage…