This paper addresses the issue of how to make school matter to historically disenfranchised, inner city African American youth, as well as youth from other struggling ethnic minority groups. It asserts that one way to do this is to reconceptualize approaches to the acquisition of literacy and literacy skills in teaching, engaging, and motivating…

This publication combines three papers on rural and urban youth issues. "Key Issues Facing Rural Youth" (Daniel F. Perkins) notes that rural adolescents share the same concerns and exhibit the same problem behaviors as their urban counterparts. But in addition, geographic isolation presents problems unique to rural areas. A framework is proposed…

New research shows the critical impact of a child's "environment of relationships" on developing brain architecture during the first months and years of life. We have long known that interactions with parents, caregivers, and other adults are important in a child's life, but new evidence shows that these relationships actually shape brain circuits…

This study examines the personal choices of two American Indian men who grew up on different reservations (Hopi and Navajo) in the Southwest. Specifically, the study explores the agendas, opportunities, and decisions involved in retaining or rejecting each man's traditional culture and language. The study was based on discussions with both men…

This book is designed to provide child caregivers with a structured framework for guiding the behavior of young children in a manner that respects individual differences, builds healthy self esteem, and develops responsibility while allowing the caregiver to maintain limits and supervisory control. Section 1 of the guide offers a framework for…

Home visiting programs provide support services to families in their own homes, touching on social services, education, mental health, nutrition, health, or general welfare concerns. Twenty home visiting programs in California were surveyed to determine standards, best practices, areas needing improvement, and to develop training and support…

This report presents the results of a 2-year study of the fiscal condition of higher education in the United States. The study found that at a time when the level of education needed for productive employment is increasing, college costs and demand are rising much faster than funding. Unless sweeping changes are made to control costs, millions of…

This volume is a collection of current research by noted scholars on Chinese child development. The volume re-examines long-held beliefs and preconceptions about Chinese culture, draws forth incompatible pictures and contradictory facts about Chinese children, and draws attention to new problems of the modern Chinese family. The chapters of the…

This curriculum unit is part of a larger curriculum developed around the broad theme of change. In this unit students will explore how a culture's myths and traditions reflect their environmental practices. As students actively explore environmental issues, their understandings of those issues change, which in turn fosters self-growth (i.e.,…

This paper addresses issues of concern to trustees of public, single-campus four-year institutions of higher education. Seven critical issues are listed: (1) enrollment trends are changing--although overall enrollment is increasing, the rate of growth is declining and there has been a shift from four-year and graduate institutions to two-year…

This report, based on a review of the literature and field visits, takes a historical and comparative approach in examining the development of higher education in China, systemically and institutionally, in the context of China's broad social and economic changes. It focuses on four areas: (1) relationships between universities and the state, (2)…

Data from "The Condition of Education, 1997" are used to show how changes over time in the composition of students in terms of factors such as student English language proficiency, family income, parents' education, and family structure affect the social context of education. This report traces associations between these student-level social…

This report describes the planning process for the Export Academy at Eastern Michigan University, designed to prepare students for a Master of Arts degree combining export and trade studies with second language (French, German, Spanish). In 1989-91, the Academy prepared the proposal for the new Master's degree program and sponsored a series of…

This report discusses evaluation and measurement of the quality of school teachers, emphasizing the problem of assessing competence, performance, and effectiveness through large-scale national sample surveys. Part 1 outlines types of issues and questions surrounding teacher quality that must be addressed, highlighting conventional and new…

This book presents information from a study of Teach for America, an alternative teacher education program that recruits and trains people with degrees in fields other than education to work in urban and rural schools with chronic teacher shortages, poverty, and minority students. The book is an effort to understand how different discourses of…