Census and student questionnaire data for 382 African-American and 3,467 white high school students from suburban San Francisco (California) indicate consistent positive relationships among grades and family status, level of parental education, and a two-parent home only for the white majority. The community context is important in understanding…

Investigates the relationship between family social status of 1,734 seventh through twelfth grade students in an urban Southern California district and crime or delinquency committed by these students in a school context. Acts of school delinquency are related to school attendance, sex, and age. Discusses reasons for the relationships. (SLD)

Describes a case study of 12 elementary schools (emphasizing 2 schools) affected by the Chicago School Reform Act, focusing on local contexts and features of school communities that advance or impede change. Results demonstrate the importance of neighborhood contexts and school leadership and the complexities of applying technical expertise. (SLD)

Uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) to reveal a detrimental contextual effect on 10th-grade mathematics and reading achievement associated with attending a school with a high concentration of children from single-parent homes. Maintains this effect is evident even when individual demographic characteristics and family…

Focuses on the use of inexplicitness by native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs) engaged in English conversations, for example impromptu, uninstitutionalized discourses. Shows that a characteristic of NNSs spoken language is the inappropriate level of inexplicitness used and the ways in which inexplicitness is manifested in the…

Compares English-as-a-Foreign-Language students beliefs about language learning, using responses to the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) to identify similarities and differences across cultural groups. Examination of individual BALLI responses did not yield clear-cut cultural differences in beliefs. (Author/VWL)

Investigated seventh- and ninth-graders' school context, motivation, and behavior during transition to high school. Found more positive motivational contexts in ninth than seventh grade. Found that seventh-grade discipline referrals, doubts about the economic value of education, and negative expectations of peers and teachers discriminated between…

Examined preschoolers', first-graders', and third-graders' responses to questions in which one authority (mother or teacher) permitted a moral or conventional act to occur across contexts and the other authority prohibited the act from occurring across contexts. Found that children's evaluations were a function of the authorities' status, the…

Western countries' energetic reform efforts over the past decade are having insufficient effects on student achievement. School improvement literature suggests that policy makers focus on classroom practice, develop varied curriculum and teaching programs, consider reform context and staff development, build capacity, and improve research and…

Examines differences in oral narrative discourse of adult second-language learners of English on narrative tasks simulating the ability to describe events in the Here-and-Now versus the There-and-Then. Results indicate that complex tasks elicit less fluent, but more accurate and complex narration than do simpler tasks. (90 references) (Author/CK)

Analyzes the interaction during peer response occurring in a writing class. The article identifies four categories of reader stances--authoritative, interpretive, probing, and collaborative--and examines language functions and topics discussed during the response sessions. It is concluded that interactive peer response is beneficial to students.…

Presents listening comprehension strategies used by students learning French. Through interviews, students described their conscious use of strategies in different contexts. All evidenced a familiarity with metacognitive, cognitive, and socioaffective techniques. (50 references) (Author/CK)

This paper addresses the educational implications of the geopolitical changes arising from the associated processes of globalisation and regionalisation for the small island states of the South Pacific. As an educationist whose research field combines analysis of the New Zealand educational reforms undertaken over the last decade within a wider…

We examined contextual factors that may affect the impact of physical discipline on later child behavior problems among high-risk Black and White families. We examined race, parental warmth, and early child problems as potential moderators of the discipline-behavior problem link. The sample included 442 White and Black children and their…

Communication in society today is characterised by rapidly changing and emergent forms of meaning-making in a context of increased cultural and linguistic diversity. The need to teach these new literacy practices referred to as multiliteracies, is now embedded within systemic policies in Australia. This research paper is a response to these…