A study compared the oral and written language concepts of preschoolers from low- and middle-income homes. Subjects, 33 4-year-olds from 3 separate Head Start programs and 31 4-year-olds from three different private schools, were administered 9 informal language assessments in the fall and again in the spring. Parents of the subjects were…

As part of a series of hearings on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, the House Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education convened a hearing in Chicago, Illinois, in order to hear the recommendations of those who work directly in higher education. The witnesses testified on students loans, the difference between grants and…

This study compared the concepts of oral and written language of 4-year-old, preschool children from low- and middle-class homes. Subjects were 64 children from 3 preschools serving families at poverty level, and 3 preschools serving middle-income families. Children's understanding of the function of print was measured by three tasks: recognizing…

The thesis of this paper is that constructivism and similar pedagogic formulations are problematic because: (1) being nondialectical they close off possibilities for dialogue about issues such as those discussed in this paper; and (2) they are embedded in forms of discourse which privilege middle-class culture, values, language, and ways of…

This newsletter issue focuses on the roles played by higher education finance and student financial aid in ensuring broad access to higher education. Specifically, the report discusses trends in family income and college costs that affect the need for student aid. The report finds that income remains a primary determinant of students' educational…

Instructional practices and social climates of 62 preschool and kindergarten programs serving poor and middle-class children were observed. Analyses revealed strong relationships between the nature of instruction and the social climate. Programs were divided into three types: (1) didactic programs, in which academic skills were stressed in a…

Focusing on the acquisition of science processes, a study was made of the relationship of acculturation and social class to cognitive development among 1,677 lower and lower middle class students enrolled in the public high schools of three rural, 11 semi-urban, and three urban communities. Acculturation was defined at the community level in terms…

This document reports on teaching in culturally diverse classrooms from the perspective of mainstream classroom teachers. In-depth interviews with 36 California teachers on the challenges of diverse classrooms elicited their views of a teacher's role, descriptions of curriculum and pedagogy, and stories of the personal development that led to…

With the large-scale movement of middle-class Blacks to the suburbs over the last two decades, the enrollment of Blacks in suburban public and private schools has risen sharply. Using the Black population of Dallas as a target group, the effect of neighborhood attributes and changing family and urban characteristics on the destinations of Blacks…

Lower-class black street corner behavior is present in the inner city and in nonschool settings. This language and behavior is misunderstood by middle-class whites, especially teachers, to the point that effective communications are seriously hampered in urban schools. Efforts to educate minority students will fail significantly until teachers and…

This cross-cultural study of social class and parent involvement in schools brings together data from Boston, Massachusetts, Liverpool, England, and Portugal. Interviews conducted with 350 teachers and low income parents sought to understand the nature and extent of the contacts between schools and families. The perspective was that children grow…

The admission that no one best method exists for educating all children was the beginning of the alternative school movement. Alternative education, in whatever form it assumes, must allow for real parent/student choice through the creation of a number of educational options. These optional public schools take many forms and may be classified…

Research supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation.

In a speech on the current criticism leveled against testing programs, the speaker states that attacks on testing are partially motivated by the public's reluctance to acknowledge unpleasant truths about society's weaknesses and problems. Some of these weaknesses are described as the inadequacy of public education; the incompetence of a portion of…

An investigation of interdisciplinary sources dealing with social values and the college curriculum reveals numerous examples of a "double-bind" situation, in which mutually contradictory signals are transmitted to the student. One example is the discrepancy between the stated purposes of the community college, as contained in its catalog and…