The fixation task used in this study measures the amount of time a child fixates or looks at a given picture as it is repeated over six trials and then is followed by a novel picture on the seventh. Two series of slides were used. The first was a redundant nonsocial visual stimulus: six trials of a slide showing 20 chromatic straight lines and a…

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test is well known and widely used in testing the verbal ability of young children. In the longitudinal study, the standard Peabody test booklet was used in Year 1. In Year 2, a special ETS adaptation of the first 60 items was used, in which there were redrawings of a number of the human pictures to present black…

The TAMA was designed specifically for the Longitudinal Study as a nonverbal test of general knowledge. The test requires the child to point to the correct picture among three alternatives in response to a question. The two practice items and 25 test items are printed on bound cards, mostly in black and white. Items can be classified as follows:…

The occupational plans of a sample of white and black high school seniors were analyzed by a model which included the following variables: father's occupation, family income, father's education, and academic performance. A proportionate, stratified, random cluster sample of Louisiana high school seniors was selected in November 1970, yielding a…

The primary objectives of this study were to examine the career patterns of male liberal arts alumni and their roles in a society that emphasizes science and specialized skills. A questionnaire and covering letter were mailed to 18,004 persons, and 10,877 completed and returned the questionnaires. The classes of 1948, 1953, and 1958 were those…

Low achieving, low socioeconomic students, because of a multiplicity of little-understood background factors, seem to fail not because of an initial lack of motivation to learn, but because basic learning processes taught them by their own communities are not contiguous with those required for academic success. The study attempts to determine if…

Both papers are concerned with locus of control (of reinforcement) expectancies among young children, especially preschoolers. The first reviews a number of studies which examined the relationship between locus of control, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. The results indicate that (1) economic status is consistently related to locus of…

The contents of the second edition of this book on "metropolitanism" include: (1) Metropolitan schools and social structure: three schools of the metropolis, social mobility, etc.; (2) Urban and metropolitan development: the city in an essentially rural society, new definitions of metroplis, etc.; (3) Socioeconomic and racial stratification in…

The aim of the study was a search for factors influencing the achievement of black and white elementary pupils in urban schools of varying racial and social class composition. Key variables tested include school racial composition (current and cumulative), school social observers, and the interracial friendliness of classmates as evidenced by…

Research conducted on El Salvador's educational reform program during the 1970 school year is summarized. The primary focus is on the effect of instructional television on that reform. The administrative history of the 1970 school year is briefly reviewed. Learning patterns in the seventh- and eighth-grade television classes are compared with…

If the major educational objective of classifying children into restricted range classroom environments is greater provision for individual differences--and given that there is no clear-cut evidence indicating that this object has been realized--then one is compelled to entertain the conclusion that ability grouping, as presently implemented, has…

Since Americans tend to live together with people of similar occupation and income, and style of life, neighborhoods tend to be composed of people approximately equal in status. But Americans tend also to group together according to race. Negroes are largely contained in neighborhoods seen as low-status--usually as slums. This residential…

The effects of teaching prereading skills to kindergarteners on their reading readiness scores were investigated. Seventeen kindergartens providing a cross section of socioeconomic levels and representing different ethnic groups were selected. Each experimental school was then matched to a control school. In the experimental schools, six major…

The purpose of the study was to gain empirical knowledge about the relationships between personality traits, level of acculturation, and achievement among Mexican American children as a base to determine appropriate strategies to improve school adjustment. Ninety Mexican American 8th-graders in San Antonio were assessed. Among the measurement…

This study attempts to determine whether the pattern of human abilities varies or remains constant over a range of ability levels. Scores on 12 aptitude and achievement tests for 11,743 subjects, subdivided into four groups according to intelligence and socioeconomic status, were used. A technique, developed by Joreskog, for simultaneously factor…