The 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) examined three types of literacy--prose, document, and quantitative--among the entire older adult population and various subgroups thereof. Of the nationally representative sample of 26,091 adults interviewed during the NALS, 2,267 were aged 60-69, 1,005 were aged 70-79, and 442 were at least 80 years…

Suggesting that U.S. society is an adversarial one that makes sure that certain groups of people fail, this paper explores the ascription of failure in the adversarial contexts of the family, the school, and the workplace. The paper argues that if Americans continue to ascribe pariah status to large segments of the society, then the United States…

The education-production function has become the dominant paradigm for analyzing the effects of education resources on student outcomes. This paper presents findings of a study that investigated the education-production function and its relationship to educational policymaking. Fiscal data and student-achievement test scores for Indiana during the…

This study examines how Latino families in Carpinteria (California) are building a community among themselves and with the school in support of the students. Parents who are knowledgeable about the school's expectations and the way in which the school operates are better advocates for their children than parents who lack such information. Research…

PG-TRAK90 is a cluster-based geographic marketing system designed by Maryland's Prince George's Community College (PGCC) to maximize educational marketing objectives. To create it, United States Census Bureau files containing over 200 demographic, housing, and lifecycle variables for 172 tracts in Prince George County (PGC) were reformatted into…

A study of final student academic outcomes was conducted at Prince George's Community College (PGCC), Maryland, using the lifestyle cluster of PG-TRAK90, the college's proprietary geo-demographic analysis system which targets new educational markets and tracks student needs and performance. Of the fall 1990, first-time-in-college cohort, 90%…

In the course of an ethnographic case study of a rural, Appalachian Head Start program, the researcher became increasingly aware of the bias she brought to the project in favor of the universal applicability of developmentally appropriate practice. The study was an extension of Sally Lubeck's "Sandbox Society" (1985), and focused on…

The Journalism History section of this collection of conference presentations contains the following 15 papers: "Henry Ford's Newspaper: The 'Dearborn Independent,' 1919-1927" (James C. Foust); "Redefining the News?: Editorial Content and the 'Myth of Origin' Debate in Journalism History" (Elliot King); "'Nonpublicity' and…

In 1988, 65% of mothers with children under the age of 18 were in the labor force. Regardless of marital status, mothers are very active in the labor force and contribute significantly to family income. On average, female-headed households earned 56% of the amount married-couple families earn. Families maintained by women represented 52% of all…

This book contains 21 essays by a diverse group of scholars who examine the current state of family theory and research and look ahead to challenging issues likely to be raised in the future. Part one contains seven essays on the rethinking of conceptual models, including "Bringing the Institution Back In,""Changes of Heart: Family…

Two studies appear to reach unsatisfactory conclusions regarding causes of low math achievement among American Indians. Leap (1988) studied math problem-solving strategies among low-math-achieving fourth- and fifth-grade Ute reservation students. He concluded that faulty or cumbersome problem-solving strategies were directly linked to Ute language…

This booklet reports on the results of in-depth telephone surveys of 800 black parents and 800 white parents who were questioned about their children's education. Also included is information from focus groups and individual interviews with parents and public education professionals. Public Agenda plans eventually to conduct similar surveys of…

This paper discusses the results of a study that explored the influence of two major external factors on children's potential giftedness before the identification process is initiated. The study involved 13 children (ages 4-6) and investigated parental perceptions of the influence of internal and/or external factors on their child's cognitive…

Previous research in California, Alaska, and West Virginia has suggested that school or school district size may influence student achievement indirectly by mediating the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on achievement. The Matthew Project is replicating the key analyses of the West Virginia study in four strategically chosen states: Georgia,…

This study compared end-of-year standardized test scores (CAT) of 204 children in 6 developmentally appropriate and 6 developmentally inappropriate kindergarten classes. Particular attention was given to the effects on test scores of the interaction of classroom type with sex, socioeconomic status, and race. Relationships between children's CAT…