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…

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 study examined rural students' academic aspirations and expectations, their perceptions of their parents' aspirations and expectations, and their parents' actual aspirations and expectations. Surveys were completed by 3,733 seventh grade-students in 54 schools in 17 West Virginia counties. Parent response rates were lower, with approximately two…

The concept of social capital refers to the resources of networks, norms or shared values, and trust to which individuals have access as community members. A reason to consider intergenerational learning in the context of social capital is awareness of unequal access to positive social capital and the risk that social exclusion and disadvantage…

This document builds on the success of earlier editions. It includes a number of substantially revised handouts updated from the previous editions, plus many new topics that reflect the challenges parents and educators face in the 21st century. Many handouts for families are also provided in Spanish. This document is a comprehensive resource for…

The purpose of this research was threefold. The first purpose was to conduct a needs assessment for a local school district to obtain additional funding for the nutrition and healthy eating habits unit of the 9th grade Wellness curriculum. The Wellness program consisted of one semester of physical education and one semester of classroom…

All data sources indicate that black-white skill gaps diminished over most of the 20th century, but black-white skill gaps as measured by test scores among youth and educational attainment among young adults have remained constant or increased in absolute value since the late 1980s. I examine the potential importance of discrimination against…

Alabama's primary competitor in recruiting is in-state rival Auburn University which lures away roughly one in eight of UA's admitted students. Two factors stand above all others in attracting students to UA--academic reputation and social activities reputation. Factors following distantly are a visit to the UA campus, financial assistance and the…

Equity in faculty salaries has always been a controversial issue facing institutions of higher education. As a bastion of academic freedom where faculty and students purse knowledge, it is almost anti-intellectual to find a gender gap in salaries. More importantly, there are laws, which ensure gender equity in salaries. Thus, salary equity has…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 established a requirement that all states develop and submit to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) a performance plan designed to improve the educational and functional outcomes for children with disabilities. The state plan must…

The university eligibility of African American and Latino high school graduates in California has increased significantly in recent years. The Commission's most recent eligibility study showed that the percentage of African American high school graduates who met the minimum admission requirements of the University of California more than doubled…

This collection of papers discusses what researchers and classroom teachers think and do about culture in language education. There are nine chapters in two parts. Part 1, "Culture Theory," includes the following: (1) "Common Themes" (Joseph Lo Bianco); (2) "Culture: Visible, Invisible and Multiple" (Joseph Lo…

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…

This book reviews trends in household well-being in Africa during the 1990s. Using the better data sets now available, the main factors behind observed poverty changes are examined in eight countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. A broad view of poverty is taken, which includes income poverty and…

This report uses a newly defined version of the Greene Method to calculate graduation rates for the public school class of 2000, comparing results to those of 1998. It calculates state and national figures using data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data. The 2000 national graduation rate was 69 percent (76…