This report summarizes demographic information about rural populations in the United States and discusses a variety of issues that are relevant to rural youth poverty. Although recent poverty rates for rural areas were higher than urban poverty rates, the media and political forces have almost completely neglected the rural poor. Extensive census…

This study examined the language and cultural attitudes of 45 bilingual Spanish/English adolescents of Spanish, Peruvian, and Chilean background enrolled in Saturday Spanish programs in Sydney, Australia. Each student had at least one parent whose first language was Spanish. A 60-item questionnaire designed to elicit information on factors…

This document presents a selection of teacher designed activities to help meet the needs of gifted and talented students. The four teaching units focus on creativity, independent study, critical thinking, and communication skills. Introductory material explains how the teachers of Parkland County (Alberta) worked together in informal and…

This report documents efforts to develop instruments for data-gathering and to train field staff in the use of the instruments, as part of a feasibility study designed to validate a conceptual framework that describes the elements of California's special education prereferral and alternative assessment procedures for ethno-linguistically diverse…

Attribution theory supports the notion that teachers respond to student behavior based upon their own beliefs regarding the causation of behavior. This study examined differences in male and female teachers' attributions and beliefs in relation to gender and success of their students. Subjects, 250 high school teachers, half male and half female,…

This paper presents a sensitizing conceptual scheme for examining interpersonal adaptation in urban classrooms. The construct "interpersonal adaptation" is conceptualized as the interaction of individual/personality factors, interpersonal factors, and social/cultural factors. The model is applied to the urban school. The conceptual…

The Urban Education staff at Research for Better Schools (RBS), Inc., has developed a conceptual framework to address the complex issues that must be dealt with in urban school-restructuring efforts. This overview of the Urban Learner Framework (ULF) describes its two major features: four research-based themes that are the foundation for a new…

This introductory text presents a collection of articles from urban-studies journals to introduce undergraduate students to the interdisciplinary field of urban studies. The book is divided into 9 parts as follows: Part 1: Cities and Urbanism; part 2: Urban History; part 3: Urban Policy; part 4: Economic Development; part 5: Community Services and…

This set of factsheets presents information and statistics about adolescent mothers in the United States in the areas of: (1) births and marriage; (2) aid to families of dependent children (AFDC); (3) education and training; (4) living arrangements; and (5) subsequent pregnancy. Even though the adolescent birth rate in the United States is…

The extent to which adolescents are exposed to various types of violence, as victims or witnesses, and the association of such exposure with trauma symptoms and violent behavior were studied in samples of students from central city, suburban, and small city high schools. An anonymous self-report questionnaire was completed by 3,735 students in 6…

The question of what sorts of measures are required to overcome differences between African American and other students is addressed. It is suggested that none are required, and that African American children will reach their potential when the ashes that historically and presently stunt their development are removed. The author's descriptions of…

This study examined four male homosexual, sociocultural groups: normal-hearing homosexuals with normal-hearing parents, deaf homosexuals with normal-hearing parents, deaf homosexuals with hearing-impaired parents, and hard-of-hearing homosexuals with normal-hearing parents. Differences with regard to self-perception, identity, and attitudes were…

The question examined in this paper is: what is known exactly about variables that affect long-term retention of knowledge learned in school? U. Neisser (1982) asserts that "it is difficult to find even a single study, ancient or modern, of what is retained from academic instruction." Further, popular belief holds that much of the knowledge…

Using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, this study examined the effects of 11 learning strategies variables, ability, and gender on the verbal and mathematics Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores of approximately 300 black high school seniors. The students took the SAT during the fall of the 1989-90 school year. Learning…

This paper describes the development and implementation of a culture-based literature program to improve the reading skills and understanding of minority cultures in students with mild disabilities. Steps in developing such a whole language approach program include: (1) identifying the cultural groups to be studied; (2) choosing both fiction and…