A study examined the influence of cultural programming on American Indian students' school outcomes. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze survey data from 240 urban American Indian students aged 9-18. Cultural programming moderately, and largely indirectly, influenced student outcomes. The strongest predictors of school success were…

Latina academic achievement is compromised by poverty, family responsibilities, low preschool participation, poor quality schools, limited neighborhood resources, low expectations, few role models, and gender role attitudes. These disparities contribute to psychosocial issues and are not associated with Latino cultural capital, which has not…

Promotes the improvement of school success for ethnically diverse students via culturally responsive teachers and the preparation of preservice teachers with necessary knowledge, attitudes, and skills to do this, highlighting: development of a cultural diversity knowledge base; design of culturally relevant curricula; demonstration of cultural…

A study involving 1,097 elementary and secondary students who are deaf found that degree of hearing loss, additional disability, and age at onset were negatively related to psychosocial adjustment. However, there was a positive relationship with the use of hearing aids, speech intelligibility, academic achievement, parental hearing status, and…

Utilizes multiple regression analysis to examine the relative contributions of measures of musical aptitude, music experience, and gender in predicting grades in a music theory course for non-music majors. Results suggest that performance experience is the only statistically significant grade predictor for this group. (MJP)

Uses test questions from the Basic Economics Test (BET) to reveal that elementary students are capable of understanding economics concepts. Maintains that neither ethnic background nor parental income makes a difference in economic learning. The most statistically significant determinant of improved scores was the extent to which a concept was…

Offers a conceptual model for students who manifest symptoms of both learning disabilities and emotional/behavior disorders. The model is based on six functional domains: cognitive processing, social/emotional adjustment, behavioral functioning, academic performance, language functioning, and executive functioning. The model is applied to critical…

Analysis of interviews and time-diary protocols with 48 students (16 blind, 16 low-vision, and 16 sighted), ages 15-21, and their parents focused on four lifestyle areas: academic involvement and performance, daily living and personal care activities, recreation and leisure activities, and work and vocational experiences. Similarities and…

Examined relationship between the cognitive demands of instruction and student motivation in fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade mathematics classrooms. Found through observation and survey data that sixth- and seventh-grade math lessons were characterized by significantly fewer elements of higher-order thinking than fifth-grade math lessons, and…

Attempts to analyze, through questionnaires and interviews with students, parents, and teachers, some of the factors contributing to differences between male and female student scoring on the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The GCSE is a British comprehensive, national core curriculum examination. Discusses the reasons why…

Examines sources of influence on inner-city students' initial middle school placements in English and mathematics and continuity and change in placements through the end of middle school. Discusses the various academic and socioeconomic influences and how they change throughout the middle school years. Includes data from a longitudinal study. (MJP)

Examined contemporaneous and predictive relations between parenting styles, adolescents' attributions, and educational outcomes. Found that adolescents who perceived their parents as nonauthoritative were more likely than peers to attribute achievement outcomes to external causes or low ability. The higher the proportion of dysfunctional…

Analyzes data collected from freshman at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) between 1989 and 1992. Suggests that high school records (grade point average and number of courses completed) are a better predictor of academic success than entrance examinations. Discusses technical aspects of the study and social implications of its results. (MJP)

This study evaluated the effect of middle-to-high-school transition programs on educational progress (student performance and retention) in a nationally representative sample of public school students. Data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey indicated that transition programs targeting students, parents, and school staff together…

Introduces a framework for high school retention efforts based on the findings from a study of 84 young Mexican American women who were first in their families to attend college. The framework provides the means for bridging educational gaps by supporting the strengths of these young people and by reducing barriers to educational achievement.…