An observational study of classroom behavior was made to identify competencies and contexts of social interaction influencing the development of friendship among preschool children attending an integrated special education classroom. Subjects were six boys and four girls whose ages ranged from 3 to 6 years. Two of the children, a 4-year-old girl…

Literature related to eight major categories of variables affecting the experiences provided to children in preschools is reviewed in this paper. Categories initially discussed include contextual factors, characteristics of clients, characteristics of teachers and other assisting adults, and the preschool curriculum. A short discussion of the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the general proposition that different maternal child-rearing pattern-types (permissive or restrictive) are associated with high scholastic achievement in elementary school children from four different class-culture groupings (black middle-class, black working-class, white middle-class, and white…

Recent attention to issues concerning the instruction and assessment of English language learner (ELL) students has placed them among the top national priorities in education. Policy has noticeably shifted from exclusion to inclusion of ELL students in the assessment and accountability system. However, recent research on and practice in the…

Schools working to raise student achievement need the help of an organized, focused central office. Yet many districts lack unified direction, agreement on the central office role in supporting school improvement, and coherence and alignment between goals and strategies. Drawing on the findings of a three-year study of several districts focused on…

Rural development is often presumed to rest on educational improvement, and high levels of mathematics achievement might seem essential to improving the quality of rural life and the viability of rural communities. Efforts to promote math achievement growth are usually limited to curricular and instructional innovations, while contextual factors…

A case study was conducted of Ryan, an 11-year-old student from New Zealand whose family came to Australia as itinerant fruit pickers. Classroom observations; document reviews; and interviews with Ryan, his teachers, and the school principal indicated that Ryan was a badly behaved student. However, in focusing on Ryan's behaviors and linking poor…

Serving as a vehicle for raising the profile of and thereby gaining recognition for the important research and development work being conducted in Canada in support of children and families, the "Research Connections Canada" series compiles research and/or development papers as well as background papers, analytical literature reviews,…

A review of research yields nine conclusions concerning mathematics achievement among rural and urban students. Among them are that currently a national rural vs. non-rural mathematics achievement gap does not exist; at the state level, a rural vs. non-rural achievement gap exists in 40 percent of the states, and that gap is evenly split between…

It has long been accepted that the social and economic well-being of adults is determined principally by their passage through childhood and that well-adjusted children emerge most often from healthy families. Creating the stability, emotional warmth and security of a healthy family environment is a challenge to parents at the best of times, but…

A historical and qualitative analysis of a northern urban de facto segregated school is presented that explains the unique factors of the school's history that led to the maintenance of the school today. The focus is on the school's context, its historical and present-day leadership, and its past and present teachers. In considering the school's…

This paper examines pregnancy in early adolescence, among West Virginia females aged 10-14, as it relates to local economic and social contexts. Although research on adolescent pregnancy is substantial, it is generally limited to the experiences of older adolescents and premised on assumptions of methodological individualism--that the correlates…

The role of feedback in training settings was examined in a survey-based study of feedback in nine 5-day management development training courses in a United Kingdom government agency. The courses followed a highly standardized curriculum and delivery process. Although the courses were primarily instructor-and theory-centered, they also included…

This paper presents findings from the 1998 Working Conference on Mathematics Teaching and Learning in Poor Communities, which examined evidence of effective mathematics education in impoverished communities. The task force highlighted aspects of interventions that were critical to success or failure and examined reform in relation to: student…

Adult educators create a curriculum whenever they explicitly or implicitly select some objects of knowledge over others, or choose a particular way to handle knowledge in their pedagogy. When the interests reflected in a curriculum are left unexamined, the role of knowledge as a phenomenon of power is not addressed and inequitable social…