Disasters can be defined as catastrophic events that challenge the normal range of human coping ability. The technological/human-caused disaster, a classification of interest in this article, is attributable to human error or misjudgment. Lower socioeconomic status and race intersect in the heightened risk for technological/human-caused disasters…

Both Hispanics and Whites have made important educational gains over the past two decades. However, Hispanics trail their White peers with respect to educational access, achievement, and attainment, although some differences have narrowed over time. This booklet summarizes data from "The Condition of Education, 1995," on overall educational trends…

This study considers the impact of curriculum decisions on African American achievement by exploring faculty and administrator views and attitudes toward curriculum decisions at public and private institutions of higher education. A random sampling of 291 faculty and administrators at two U.S. institutions, one public and one private, was asked to…

This final report summarizes findings of the First Decade Project, which examined factors related to the successful transition from school to adult life for youth with disabilities. Subjects were two cohorts of graduates from 1985 and 1990, including all special education graduates (N=488) and randomly selected nondisabled graduates (N=610) from…

This study developed a profile of college freshman children of immigrant parents and identified differences in the entering characteristics of these students and the freshman children of native born parents. Data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey were evaluated for 97 freshmen with foreign-born parents and 334 freshmen…

This study examined the relationship between students' academic performance in high school vis-a-vis their performance in the first year at college. The study analyzed data on students who graduated from Maryland high schools in the 1994-95 academic year and who were enrolled in 2- and 4-year Maryland public institutions or in one of 11…

This study used data from the national study of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) to investigate the impact of college on income, educational aspirations, and educational attainment for students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds compared to those from high-SES backgrounds. The study was based on concepts of…

This 1996 Kids Count data book presents data on 20 indicators of child well-being in Kansas, grouped into 6 areas: economic well-being, physical health and safety, educational achievement, early childhood care and education, emotional well-being, and social behavior and social control. The data are grouped by county for each indicator, by…

What the Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) test actually tests and the consequences of these tests for funding decisions were studied with a random sample of 100 school districts in the Cook County suburbs of Chicago. Eighth-grade IGAP scores for reading were obtained from the state report card, a document prepared by each school district…

This study examined differences in educational experiences and performance of white, black, and Hispanic graduate students. The 1,352 students in the sample were selected from four large public research universities and were polled using a 142-item questionnaire, organized in the following categories: (1) demographic characteristics (sex, gender,…

The human capital and growth accounting approaches to measuring the benefits of education both have serious weaknesses. Like other goods and services, educational services have effects on the economic well-being of individuals and families. Because the economic well-being effects of education include private marketed and non-marketed impacts as…

Although youth between the ages of 16 and 19 account for only 6.7 percent of the nation's labor force, they constitute 17.9 percent of the officially unemployed. Unemployment among youth is rising. More than 46 percent of the nation's black youth and nearly 39 percent of Hispanic children currently live below the poverty level. Moreover, real…

This report presents the results of one of the first empirical investigations of how a tax subsidy for tuition costs actually influences parents' school choices. It provides data about subsidy costs, utilization, and effects in Minnesota, the first state to have a tuition subsidy pass judicial review at all levels of the court system. The study…

Analyzing data from the High School and Beyond survey on the behavior of 13,000 high school sophomore women over a two-year period, this document reveals the following facts about single motherhood: (1) young women with different background profiles exhibit markedly different rates of single parenthood; (2) because teenage women who become single…

Black, Latina, and Asian women generally work in jobs that are less well-paying and lower on the occupational hierarchy than are the jobs held by their white counterparts. In addition, these women of color face higher unemployment rates than do white women. Whereas the entry of large numbers of white women into the work force is a fairly recent…