This collection of papers grew out of a response to the need for a more adequate theory of educational equity to guide research and public policy. Section one argues that there is a need to shift the educational policy focus from frequency rates to the conditions of opportunity. In the second section, three theories of distribution of…

This monograph contends that the same ethnic preoccupation that is pervading politics in the United States today is also dangerously affecting our educational system. Specifically, pluralistic demands placed on American schools are moving them away from the historical objectives of unifying, providing a common experience for a diverse population,…

The National Task Force on Desegregation Strategies was established in 1977 to encourage State leadership to become involved in fostering integrated education. This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the Task Force after three years of work. The Task Force identified three outstanding tasks that must be approached simultaneously…

This study, the result of interviews conducted in Quebec and Montreal in the spring of 1975, deals with the adaptation, integration, and acculturation of the Lebanese immigrants in Quebec since the end of World War II. This new immigration wave is contrasted with the one that took place around 1880. Generally speaking, the situation in both the…

A conference on the courts, social science, and school desegregation attempted to clarify how social science research has been used and possibly misused in school desegregation litigation. The symposium issue addressed in this book is a product of that conference. First, the judicial evolution of the law of school desegregation from Brown V. the…

This paper deals with the integrative function of sign language in the British deaf community. Sign language communities exhibit a special case of diglossia in that they exist within a larger, hearing community not necessarily characterized by diglossia itself. British Sign Language includes at least two diglossic varieties, with different…

Portuguese immigrants in America and Canada have certain institutions in their traditional socio-culture which are considered to act as preadaptive mechanisms in the migrant's settling-in process. This paper discusses one locale which has a large proportion of recent Portuguese immigrants, and emphasizes how women, in particular, are important in…

The extent of citizen participation is influenced by local community factors, the character of Federal agency policy, and the purposes of Federal legislators and administrators. The latter include: decrease of alienation, engagement of the "sick" individual in the healing process, creation of a neighborhood power force able to influence the…

People fail to communicate because they fail to read accurately the cultural signs that each person is sending. This consistently produces bewilderment, and often feelings of anger, frustration, and pain. Communication becomes virtually impossible when people not only operate from different cultural codes, but are unaware that different codes are…

This report is a survey of attitudes on desegregation conducted by the Southeastern Regional Office for Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the Spring of 1969. It was undertaken to help civil rights staff better understand the integration process. The staff interviewed 1230 persons involved in school desegregation in 13…

The "assimilation perspective" on minority group relations in America distort empirical reality because of two hidden assumptions. First, divergence or difference is recognized at an earlier point--only to be corrected by equalization of opportunity. The second tends to view the "new world"--the assimilated--as homogeneous. The…

This study of school segregation of pupils of various socioeconomic strata in urban environments in Sweden has the following arrangement: form of the study and theoretical background; housing segregation in Malmo; starting points for the study of school segregation by socioeconomic status in Malmo; methods used in the study; the decision processes…

Based on a June 1970 survey of 259 black homemakers (women between 18 and 65 having children in the household) in 2 villages and 1 town of an East Texas county (75% rural, disproportionately high rate of low-income families relative to Texas as a whole, 25% black, and pervaded by traditional southern culture), this paper presents 4 general…

Do varying racial and social school mixtures significantly relate to self-esteem of black and white fifth-grade pupils? The purpose of the present study was to examine several facets of this question. Interrelationships were studied among pupil's self-esteem and the following demographic variables: school's racial composition, pupil's sex, pupil's…

The "elitist" tradition of American education was found out in the 1960's. Not until a social force quite alien to the profession took hold and a revolution was declared, was the system of education called to task. In education, the response generated a spate of books that examined the many inequities, recommending remedies. Some of these studies…