This collection of papers examines the crisis in public education, focusing on poor and minority children. There are seven chapters in two parts. After "Introduction: Silenced Voices and Extraordinary Conversations" (Michelle Fine and Lois Weis), Part 1, "Scenes of Silencing," includes: (1) "Silencing and Nurturing Voice…

Various disciplinary perspectives can help in understanding relationships among cultural identity, spirituality, and sociopolitical development and their role in teaching for transformation. Educators must consider how the spirituality omnipresent in the learning environment informs emancipatory education. Cultural identity development is coming…

Pennsylvania's Philadelphia School District has a high percentage of minority, bilingual, and low-income students and suffers from low student achievement, chaotic instructional organization, teacher shortage, dilapidated school facilities, and lack of accountability. Six community organizing groups are working with parents and youth for local and…

This study examined the relationship between perceptions of diversity and overall satisfaction in students at the University of Maryland at College Park. An anonymous 100-item questionnaire on cultural attitudes and climate was mailed to first and third year students, with mail and phone call follow-ups resulting in an overall return rate of 60…

This report describes a longitudinal evaluation of an on-going 5-year program at the University of Michigan to improve minority student retention and academic performance. The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) creates research partnerships between first- and second-year students and faculty researchers, and provides peer…

This report examines differences in measures of health status and health services utilization among 386 migrant children (ages 6 months through 5 years) from 253 households. Data were collected from Delmarva Rural Ministries (a migrant health center than maintains three satellite sites serving a 10-county area in Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland),…

The Annie E. Casey Foundation launched the eight-year, six-city demonstration project, Jobs Initiative (JI), in 1995 to provide support and assistance to community groups, employers, foundations, and community colleges helping disadvantaged, low-skilled workers secure family-supporting jobs. JI sites found that even during a time when employers…

Two public policy shifts in the past 10 years--the move from welfare to work and the end of social promotion in school--are intertwined in their implementation in the lives of working poor families. This report draws on ethnographic data from a 6-year study of working poor families in New York City over the period in which welfare reform became a…

This document presents state-level data on Pennsylvania's K-college education, including demographic distribution across each educational level, participation and success in Advanced Placement, percentage of students taking high-level courses, school funding gaps, and high school and college graduation rates. In 2002, 57 percent of all 5th graders…

This report highlights the steps that colleges and universities in Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states are taking to reduce the need for remedial college courses, addressing the following issues: who needs remedial education; how many students entering college need remedial courses; whether state policies on college-level assessment…

Sports programming plays a significant role in the media messages that American boys receive today. To explore the messages that sports programming presents to its audience, this report relates the findings of a study that analyzed a representative selection of sports programs and their accompanying commercials; also presented are findings from a…

This publication recognizes the importance of women's health, and more specifically, the role of culture, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic background, geographic location, and other social and economic factors in contributing to health status. After a section that highlights important issues, section 1, "Factors Affecting the Health of Women of…

This study uses symbolic interactionism as a framework for understanding race, and for understanding how faculty of color construct the promotion and tenure process. Interviews were conducted with 16 faculty members at a private research university in a small United States city. Interviewees included eight African American women, three African…

These proceedings present testimony from the California Senate Select Committee on Higher Education Admissions and Outreach and the California Senate Select Committee on Higher Education regarding undergraduate admissions at the University of California (UC) in the aftermath of Proposition 209 and California Board of Regents' Special Proposal 1…

Using the Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom (S. Harter, 1980) and the Self-Perception Profile for Children (S. Harter, 1985), this study of 222 urban early adolescents (median age=149 months) examined differences in motivation that might affect academic achievement and perceptions of competence. Socioeconomic status…