This report was designed for teachers and teacher educators who, in their teaching, curricula, and relationships with students, struggle with fundamental cultural questions: Who are my students? What kinds of cultural influences shape their lives? How do they and I shape and construct this culture on an ongoing basis? and What are my own cultural…

In Kayenta Unified School District (KUSD) on the Navajo Reservation, 92 percent of students come from homes where Navajo is the primary language, but many students entering school are not fluent in either English or Navajo. A survey of 23 educators examined the effects of language and culture on the likelihood that a student would be placed in…

This paper examines graduate counseling students' affective and cognitive development related to cultural competence. Counseling Process and Cross Cultural Counseling, two required courses in a master's degree program at a regional university in the Midwest, were designed to provide a knowledge-base about cultural differences and to project how…

This report summarizes research literature on multiage classrooms, explaining how they operate, and describes a study of a low-performing, predominantly Native American school district which adopted multiage classrooms as its primary reform strategy. District teachers completed surveys about: planning; collaboration; student groupings and…

This report brings together empirically-based studies on classroom organization and management and outlines practices that facilitate creation of a classroom system that is both preventive and interventional. The nine sections focus on: using research to create a classroom management system (arranging the classroom, planning rules and procedures,…

Noting that scientific observation of children's dreaming offers unparalleled opportunities to study experience of conscious mental states, this book presents findings from two studies on children's dreaming. Following an argument outlining the problems in equating dreaming with perception, the book explains the use of sleep laboratories and…

Noting that most children living in Australia have access to a television, video games, and computers and are influenced by the content of their viewing and interactive games, this report examines the impact of media violence on young children. Topics discussed include the recognition of violence on television and video/computer games, reasons for…

Phonological awareness is one of the strongest predictors of success in learning to read. Recent research findings indicate that the development of proficiency in the first language (L1) reading structures may significantly influence reading acquisition in a second language (L2). However, little is yet known of the predictive relationship of…

This final report provides findings of a qualitative study of characteristics of Latina high school students with learning disabilities in the context of use of single sex environments to encourage school continuance for this population. Specifically, the study examined whether there are measurable differences in classroom behaviors, school…

This paper asserts that if a single theme prevails in the story of Greater Boston's new immigration, it is diversity. No single group dominates in metro Boston. Diversity in country of origin is compounded by differences in ethnicity, socioeconomic background, legal status, and language. Issues of particular salience to immigrant communities…

Interviews with 107 rural divorced, single mothers in 6 Pennsylvania counties examined their use of and attitudes toward community assistance programs, workfare, and educational programs. Many respondents had used welfare and nutrition programs and felt the programs were needed. However, they felt that child feeding programs were more accessible…

The Western paradigm of education regards schools as the essential institutionalized cultural settings in which formal learning can take place and as the only socially valid settings in which learners can get a formal education. Knowledge is commodified and may be exchanged for currency in the form of jobs or licenses. Learning that occurs outside…

This study used data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, which consists of a two-wave panel of approximately 2,500 second generation students in Florida's Dade County public schools, to investigate the impact of non-immigrant/involuntary minority enrollment in second generation Hispanic students' academic achievement. Students…

This brief examines racial/ethnic differences in educational attainment, tracking student progress from high school to a postsecondary credential and examining where in this path racial/ethnic differences arise. It uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, "Fourth Follow-up, 2000, which tracks students who were in 8th grade…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 requires that public elementary and secondary school systems be held accountable for achieving high levels of educational proficiency for all students. While achievement testing is the central component of state accountability systems under NCLB, these systems must include graduation rates as an academic…