The ethnic overrepresentation of students in special education programs has been recognized for decades. African Americans tend to be significantly over-represented in disability categories and underrepresented in gifted programs. While Hispanics and Native Americans are not over-represented in special education programs, they are in certain…

This digest reviews scientific and methodological problems in special education research related to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The first section of the digest discusses the various definitions of race, ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic status. The problems with current race classification and the difficulties in determining the…

This series of four fact sheets addresses the health and human service needs of Asian American children living in New York City. The first fact sheet, "Snapshots of New York City: An Overview of Asian American Families," discusses the diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population in New York, examining AAPI…

The 11 chapters in this text address issues concerned with identification and educational intervention with gifted students who are from culturally diverse backgrounds. Chapters have the following titles and authors: (1) "The Culturally and Linguistically Diverse School Population in the United States" (Angela Reyes-Carrasquillo); (2) "Culturally…

This paper describes approaches to literacy in Canadian aboriginal communities. It provides statistical data on education, employment, income, culture, language, and social issues among Canadian aboriginal people, comparing aboriginal people on and off the reserve. The statistics demonstrate issues that aboriginal literacy learners bring with them…

How one public school used its diversity to foster community, while protecting itself from exclusivity, was studied. This study challenges the assumption that a community-like ethos is impossible in an urban neighborhood public school that has no special admissions requirements. Case study methodology, with almost 250 hours of observation of…

This paper reports on a study of the teacher education practices and student characteristics that contribute to successful teachers of minority children, particularly African-American, whose background differs from their own. The study was conducted over two years on cohorts of students from a reflective teacher education program. First year…

Two studies examined adolescent students' achievement values. Study 1 participants were 146 male and 161 female African American seventh and eighth graders attending an all-black middle school. Using sociometric procedures, participants nominated classmates whom they admired, respected, and wanted to be like. These nominations were combined to…

This document is part of a series of guides for teachers in which the Division of Bilingual Education of the New York City Board of Education presents a learner-centered model in which the learner sees himself or herself in the story. Learners are able to relive their own experiences or those of their parents or grandparents as they left their own…

This study used a Vygotskian perspective to compare child rearing values and beliefs of parents, especially in regard to self-directed activities of children, in the United States, Russia, and Estonia. Participating were 60 families, evenly divided by society and social class (middle or working class), each with a child between 28 and 45 months…

A study of social and cultural factors that affect the appropriateness of verbal expressions in different languages focuses on the comparative uses of three common expressions ("thank you, I'm sorry, excuse me" and their equivalents) in English and Chinese. First, the usage patterns of the three expressions are explained briefly, and the…

This handbook provides activities and methods that educators can use to encourage Indian and Metis parents to become more involved in the education of their children and in the provincial school system as a whole. Chapter 1 includes exercises and quizzes to help teachers understand their own views on cultural awareness, racism, and values. Chapter…

The United States today is a pluralistic society, and a multicultural curriculum is a necessary component of the overall school curriculum. Multicultural education should address the culturally and the linguistically diverse student. This paper considers problems with and strategies for incorporating multicultural curricula into the classroom, and…

This book presents the story of two teachers, one black and one white, who confronted the boundaries of race, describing their journey through distrust, anger, and fear as they grappled with race in classroom teaching. It explains how the white teacher, guided by her African American mentor, learned to effectively teach African American students.…

Screening and identification for gifted services is frequently dependent on the students displaying certain typical behaviors associated with gifted learners as well as strong test taking skills. Children with backgrounds that differ from the mainstream are not well-represented in gifted programs because they never even get to, much less through,…