This book offers kindergarten teachers a collection of easy-to-implement ideas, from assessing student work to helping struggling students. The eight chapters focus on: (1) "Widely Held Expectations for Kindergartners" (developmental and academic expectations); (2) "Classroom Environment" (e.g., work and play areas, classroom schedules, bulletin…

This study involved observing a second-grade classroom to investigate how the teacher called on students, noting whether the teacher gave enough attention to students who raised their hands frequently by calling on them and examining students' responses when called on. Researchers implemented a new method of calling on students using name cards,…

The consequences of large state testing are often uniformity of expectations for achievement. The largest impact of higher standards, then, are realized by traditionally disenfranchised student populations, particularly the least affluent who are most likely to bear the yoke of low expectation. This paper advances S. Messick's (1981) fundamental…

The educational experiences of Latinas are affected by the interaction of many factors, including poverty, racism, sexual harassment, and lack of English language proficiency. This Spanish-language digest presents a range of strategies that schools can employ to promote the academic achievement of Latinas. Schools should communicate that Hispanic…

When the "theory of incompatibilities" was first elaborated more than 30 years ago, it identified five characteristics that schools needed to address to improve migrant education, but it failed to recognize the moral and cognitive strengths elicited in many youth by the harsh migrant experience. The theory posited five interdependent…

This report is intended to inform policymakers, administrators, and teachers regarding the development of standards or benchmarks addressing language and literacy skills in prekindergarten programs. The report notes that although standards and benchmarks can bring clarity to what should be expected of young children, there are challenges in…

This paper reports on a study of the impact of an integrated teacher education program for diversity on two beginning teachers and considers the challenges involved in investigating the impact of such programs. The study examined four elementary school teachers in their first or second year of teaching who were working in schools that served high…

This book offers a solution to teachers who work with students of diverse backgrounds, readiness and skill levels, and interests. The book describes a way of thinking about teaching and learning called differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction means that teachers begin where students are rather than the front of a curriculum guide,…

The largest single federal investment in schooling, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (P.L. 103-382) has provided supplementary resources to schools with large numbers of low-income students throughout the past three decades. In 1994 the program was reauthorized according to the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA), which…

When serving economically disenfranchised African American children, school systems often unconsciously respond from a racist and class biased paradigm. Teachers often unconsciously operate from a framework of low expectations for these students' success. Society often supports the notion of students getting by with less because less is all the…

This paper describes what education students observed while studying adolescent development in a sophomore college class. The students became particularly interested in how a person's identity development interfaced with his or her ideas about the future. By using the instrument "Teens and the Future," they were able to survey adolescents about…

Student success in college has never been more important. The economic advantage to baccalaureate degree holders remains substantial, with college graduates averaging a million dollars more in lifetime earnings than high school graduates. There is also the long list of non-pecuniary benefits of college--intellectual development and critical…

This study was conducted to confirm the validity and reliability of the 64-item Measure of School Capacity for Improvement (MSCI). The MSCI was designed to assess the degree to which schools possess the potential to become high performing learning communities, and was developed in response to a paucity of definition, operationalization, and…

English-speaking Canadian students were asked why they were learning French and why French-speaking Canadians wanted them to learn it, and the results were compared with their language proficiency and use. Students' expectations of motivational support from the French-Canadian community was a significant and sometimes unique predictor of…

To determine whether increasing teachers' effectiveness influences the relationship between teachers' initial expectations for a student and the student's actual performance, data were gathered on intermediate grades and secondary school teachers who participated in a mastery learning workshop. Correlations between teacher expectations and student…