A study investigated the college application behaviors of students from different racial/ethnic groups (Whites, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans) to understand differences in the college search and choice process. Data were drawn from two large national longitudinal studies, the National Education Longitudinal Study (1988)…

School reform in the 1990s has been focused on school-based restructuring, with local efforts shown to be more successful than earlier central or remote control approaches. Success has followed changes in teachers' classroom behavior, in the structure of the school, and its school culture. The local school restructuring approach is illustrated…

During the summer of 1995 a group of educators in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) created an innovative program, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Summer Institute on Nonviolence, to help young people learn alternatives to violent behavior. The program was designed to train peer leaders in nonviolence so they could return to their schools and…

This paper examines the issue of disproportion and related controversies of ethnic representation within exceptionalities in special education programs using 1993-94 data on African-American and White students from a southern state. The study defined a significant disproportion as an ethnic representation in a disability category which exceeded 10…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using performance and portfolio assessment techniques to diversify assessment in a minority teacher education program at Tuskegee University (Alabama). Both performance and portfolio assessments served as the exit examination. These techniques were used for three reasons: a state…

A number of studies have suggested that school environment and organizational structure contribute to adolescent alienation, but few have analyzed alienation in a specific geographic context. This paper examines adolescent alienation in a rural school context. Dean (1961) defined alienation as an affective construct consisting of isolation…

A pilot survey was conducted to explore why some young African American men living in cities stay in high school and why others drop out. Between October 1993 and March 1994, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 360 young black men aged 17 to 22, randomly drawn from census tracts in New York (New York), Chicago (Illinois), Los Angeles…

Some researchers have argued that out-of-school curricula, implicit patterns of learning in such realms as families, homes, peer groups, mass media, and nonschool organizations, are instrumental in forging the outlooks of individuals. This paper presents a way in which educators can learn about the out-of-school curricula of their students. The…

Overrepresentation of minorities in special education has been a problem for 25 years and was targeted by the Office of Civil Rights as an initiative in 1993. One rural southeastern state examined its special education process from referral to placement to determine if procedures significantly overidentified or underidentified a particular racial…

The Reading Recovery (RR) program of the San Diego City Schools (California) has expanded over the last 5 years and now includes 38 schools. This report documents the program's short-term and sustained efforts to increase reading achievement and its central office costs. RR is a Title I-funded early intervention program that uses one-on-one…

Social Skills Training (SST) has become a popular and effective means of prevention and intervention with adolescent populations exhibiting behavioral difficulties. Early in their development many African-American youth are exposed to homicide, crime, and interpersonal violence. The acquisition of social skills is critical to the development of…

This study investigated friendship preferences among black and white students in Georgia public schools in an effort to determine the status of racial barriers among students in current desegregated schools. A measure of social distance was developed for the study based on work by L. Thurstone (1929), E. Bogardus (1965) and others. The extent to…

This paper describes a new core curriculum at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), a state supported black liberal arts college which emphasizes leadership and community service. The new core, "Critical Foundations in the Arts and Sciences" (CFAS), provides more interdisciplinary courses, and facilitates subsequent interdisciplinary…

As part of a study which is following college graduates for 5 years, a survey of 2,264 graduates of York University (Ontario, Canada) who received B.A. degrees in 1995-96 shows that within 3 months of graduation, 54 percent of those seeking full-time employment had achieved this objective. The factors considered included background…

Central East Middle School in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), an urban school with about 45% Hispanic enrollment, and the Center for Research on the Education of Children Placed at Risk are working together to implement a Talent Development Middle School model of schooling. Part of this effort includes use of the Student Team Reading (STR) Program,…