A long-standing challenge for special education personnel is how to appropriately involve Spanish-dominant migrant parents in the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process, especially in rural agriculturally based school districts. Twelve recommendations for the IEP process are presented related to parent rights, parent orientation to school…

Teachers from a dominant cultural background identify giftedness in students from nonmainstream cultural backgrounds in different ways. Article describes ideas about giftedness in five nonmainstream cultures: African American, Latino, immigrant Asian, Native American, and low-income White. Professionals need to do more to tolerate such…

Interviews with 20 Latina physicians and medical students examined stresses encountered in medical school, on the job, and from family: lack of confidence, sex bias, financial stress, poor educational preparation, ethnic bias, and cultural sex-role expectations. Coping strategies included positive thinking, assertiveness, drawing on social…

Discusses policy and research needs related to the mass media and Latinos in five areas: emergency communications planning that considers limited-English-speaking populations, access to telecommunications and information technology, culturally sensitive children's television programming, bias in news and entertainment media, and teaching and…

The characteristics of U.S. colleges and universities with high proportions of minority group students (historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, and Hispanic-serving institutions) are examined, the distinctive needs and circumstances of their student populations are discussed, and the unique barriers faced by each group in…

Explores both the strengths that minority-serving institutions have brought to serving the educational needs of racial and ethnic minority students and the divergent perspectives that have tended to generate competition among them for scarce resources. Potential integrative policy directions include information sharing, collaboration for entry…

Examines the perceptions of parents, educators, and students regarding the educational needs of new English learners, particularly Latinos. Overall, foreign-born students may not know how to relate to American teachers and peers, and educators may not understand students' prior educational experiences and cultural influences. Language is a…

The development of an inventory of Mexican immigrant students' reading preferences is described. A study involving 405 Mexican immigrant students in grades 6-9 in southern New Mexico examined various influences on reading preferences. Results indicate that although preferences differed by gender, grade level, and U.S. residence, titles reflecting…

Maintains that creative writing should be no less a part of the elementary social-studies writing program than other expository forms. Discusses using the poetic form, the cinquain, to teach about Mexican vaqueras and vaqueros in an elementary unit on the American Southwest. Includes illustrations and instructional materials. (MJP)

Examined friendship among 160 African American, Latino, and Asian American ninth graders from low-income families. Found significant gender and racial/ethnic differences in the characteristics and quality of close and general friendships. Correlates of friendship quality varied across the type of friendship and across gender. (Author/KB)

This narrative distinguishes the covert racism of self-hatred that developed from divided cultural loyalty in this immigrant family. The author developed understanding of both the racist and the victim through life experiences and self-confrontation. The question is not: "Am I a racist?"; but: "How racist am I?" (EMK)

A multidimensional model is presented for understanding an ecological perspective to the study of development in language minority children. Socioeconomic and sociocultural factors influencing language minority child development are discussed, with emphasis on the effects of cultural familial factors and home language use. Recommendations for…

This article investigates attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment in a national epidemiological sample. Young adults reported the most negative attitudes, as compared to older adults. Males reported more negative attitudes, as compared to females, a consistent finding in young adults. The gender difference was not consistent in Latinos…

The town of Greeley, perched on northern Colorado's prairie, is like many other communities across the United States that are experiencing an influx of immigrants. The picturesque town of 85,000 people had a 30 percent minority population as of the 2000 U.S. Census. Estimates place that figure closer to 40 percent today, most of whom are Hispanic.…

Just a few years ago Jefferson Elementary School in San Diego County, California suffered from low test scores and a lackluster "science from workbooks approach" that was not motivating many in the 75% Hispanic and 50% learning-to-speak-English student body. A partnership program with the San Diego Natural History Museum called…