This study was designed to examine the epistemological beliefs about the nature of knowledge, views of intelligence and motivational perceptions. Two samples were drawn from two large urban high schools in the Southwest portion of the United States with large Hispanic/Latino student populations while a third was drawn from a majority Anglo student…

In early May 2002, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released a study of U.S. history achievement among fourth, eight, and twelfth graders, finding that nearly 60 percent of high school senior test-takers failed to demonstrate basic knowledge of U.S. history. Although the hand-wringing has begun about what "must be done" to…

This study was designed to examine the vocational interests among members of the same racial/ethnic group who differ in age, educational level, and professional attainment. Student samples of African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and American Indians (n=3,637) completing the Strong Interest Inventory (L. W.…

This article presents data obtained from a survey of high school students in Brownsville, Texas. Almost half of the students reported having seen other students carry knives at school, roughly 1 in 10 reported having seen other students carry guns at school, and more than 1 in 5 reported being fearful of weapon-associated victimization at school.…

An important predictor of whether students remain in school or withdraw is their ability to identify with academics. Consistent with Ogbu's (1992) cultural inversion and Steele's (1992) stereotype threat hypotheses, research has shown that Black and Hispanic students tend to demonstrate higher levels of academic disidentification relative to Asian…

A model intervention for academic persistence and motivation of African American and Latino high school students is provided in this article. The authors provide a theoretical and practical description of The Educational Navigation Skills Seminar (TENSS) as a demonstration of an educational persistence intervention. By reviewing the higher…

Sociocultural considerations play an important role in any teaching episode in our increasingly diverse society. This analysis focuses on a male European American preservice teacher, who is practicing teaching at a school with 3% African-American, 3% Asian, 91% European American, 1% Hispanic American, and 3% multiracial students. Examination of…

The authors investigated the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on reading achievement for urban middle school students. The authors initially developed a research-based theoretical model representing interrelationships among students' ethnicity, gender, grade level, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and reading achievement.…

In light of the continuing debate surrounding bilingual education, there has been a renewed interest to examine the perceptions and views on the subject from various constituents. The purpose of this study was to examine the group who is the target of and most affected by this controversy--English language learners. The study surveyed 280 Latino…

State and federal accountability reforms are putting considerable pressure on schools to increase the achievement of historically low-performing groups of students and to close test score gaps. In this article, we exploit the differences among the large number of elementary schools in New York City to examine how much schools vary in the…

When the Tobin Bridge was built in 1950, splitting Chelsea in half and leveling homes in its wake, middle-class families began leaving for greener pastures. The "Iron Monster" became a symbol of the city's decline. By the 1980s, Chelsea was grappling with a familiar litany of urban ills. Only half its students were graduating from high…

The prevalence of bullying and victimization by gender, grade level, and race/ ethnicity was examined among a sample of low socioeconomic, Black and Hispanic 6th- to 12th-graders in a large urban school district in Texas. Bullying and victimization were measured using specific behaviors. Students were classified as bullies (7%), victims (12%),…

The purpose of this report is to examine college readiness among Latino students using results from EXPLORE[R] (for students in grade 8 or 9), PLAN[R] (for students in grade 10), and the ACT[R] test (for students in grade 11 or 12). Latino students include Mexican American/Chicano students, Puerto Rican students, Cuban students, and other students…

This paper empirically examines the underlying premise of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) school choice provision that students will perform better when they are given the opportunity to transfer from persistently low-performing schools to higher performing schools. We focus on students who move from schools that must offer choice under NCLB in a…

When a state test and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are both measuring the same construct, the achievement gaps between subgroups on both tests should be the same. However, if a teacher or school engages in "teaching to the test" then student performance may improve on one test but not on another. We hypothesized that…