Describes how context influenced 58 beginning school principals in urban, suburban, and rural Louisiana school districts. Results are presented as storylines that demonstrate social issues extending beyond any single district or any one context variable such as race or gender. Commonalities among the job tasks and work attitudes are discussed.…

Assesses elementary students' enjoyment, ease, and confidence in doing science before and after participating in inquiry activities concerning electricity. Results were analyzed by sex and race. Participation in inquiry activities increased both African-American and Caucasian girls' enjoyment of electricity topics but Caucasian girls expressed…

Examined the role of the transition to high school as a race/ethnicity consciousness-raising experience that stimulates development of one's racial/ethnic identity depending on newcomers' racial/ethnic congruence with the student body and staff. Findings suggest that changes over the transition to high school served as a race-ethnicity…

These articles examine the racial scoring gap on the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) and other standardized tests for college admission, noting reasons why it exists and its impact on black educational opportunities. Topics addressed include: black-white scoring gaps by state; states where blacks have improved their SAT scores; online tutorial…

Finds that Black adolescent girls were largely uninterested in teen magazines' beauty images because they conflict with African-American standards of attractiveness; that makeup and haircare products were seen as specifically intended for White girls, who consequently invest more authority in the magazines' counsel and images; and that White girls…

Examined factors that might influence diverse high school students' levels of participation in intersession programs provided by a year-round education program at an urban high school. Analysis of data from student records indicated that levels of participation varied as a function of students' gender, race, grade level, and level of academic…

Examined the relationship of race, traditional academic measures (high school GPA and rank, ACT scores), and nonacademic variables (measured by the Bryson Instrument for Noncognitive Assessment, or BINA) to the first-year grades of specially-admitted college students. Found that predictors of college success functioned differently for blacks and…

Examined extent to which demographics, students' personal resources, and family resources predicted stable or lowered educational expectations from eighth grade to 2 years post-high school. Found that predictors of lost talent or lowered expectations over time included low SES and racial group membership. External locus of control predicted lost…

Interviewed high school students to determine whether teachers used instructional strategies that students believed helped them master new materials, noting whether the match between learning style and instructional format differed depending on student gender and race/ethnicity. Male Latinos reported more mismatches between learning and teaching…

Develops a proposal for learning from the differences that are present in the milieu of postgraduate programs based on a participative design. Using examples of students' and teachers' experiences with difference, it describes the "classroom as real world" as a basis for understanding differences. Explores tensions teachers may encounter…

Social workers in the United States were queried on their attitudes toward transracial adoption (TRA), defined here as African American children being adopted by White parents. An analysis of 363 questionnaires found that optimism about the future of race relations was the most powerful predictor of TRA attitudes. For both African American and…

Is neighborhood disadvantage associated with social support? If so, does residential stability modify that association? And are there gender- and race-contingent patterns? Among a sample of adults aged 65 years and older, neighborhood disadvantage is associated positively with received and donated support among black women, but only in…

The United States' black/white health gap is an important consequence of racial inequality. The gap is large, shows little signs of declining, and explanations have been limited by lack of theory and data. A new direction that offers potential for theoretical development is a focus on black immigrants, a group that shares the same racial status as…

The good news is that the achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. are smaller than they were several decades ago. The bad news is that progress stopped around 1990. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) continues to show large differences between the average scores of blacks and Hispanics on the one hand and…

The value of conceptual physical education knowledge has long been acknowledged (American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, 1969; Kneer, 1981; NASPE, 1995) yet has not been formally measured or assessed. Seven multiple choice tests with established validity and reliability (Ayers, 2001b) were used to assess the concepts…