High Schools That Work (HSTW) Assessment data show the need to improve science education in both the middle grades and high school. Science education increases students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This publication is designed to help principals, other school leaders and teachers identify rigorous instruction and successfully…

All children grow up within a cultural environment that influences their learning patterns and communication styles and how they interpret experiences, process and organize information, and perceive their surroundings. Culturally responsive instruction incorporates students' cultures and experiences into the classroom curriculum and uses their…

In the authors' research with Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage parents, some teachers, head teachers and other educational professionals referred to the South Asian parents as "hard to reach". Whilst it was clear from the parents that they were not very, and in some cases not at all, involved in their children's schools and knew little…

In this article, the authors compare Chinese American post-secondary educational attainment with that of White Americans and, in identifying those factors that most strongly account for success, argue that commonalities exist among social structural factors, while distinct differences are evident among cultural capital factors. The article rejects…

Group work is a widely used learning approach in higher education where it is seen as encouraging the development of collaborative skills and attitudes while producing an assessable product. Group assignments can, however, create dilemmas and tensions for both staff and students. Students often seek academic intervention in the form of support and…

Drawing from three years of research in the classrooms of four highly effective elementary and secondary teachers in South Los Angeles, this article considers theories of teaching in urban contexts by examining effective practices in urban classrooms. It outlines an original framework of five indicators of effective teaching in urban schools and…

The adversities that today's families face are well-documented and staggering. Even in the midst of tough times, however, many families are able to display resilience. Family resilience refers to the coping mechanisms the family uses as a functional unit to recover from life's setbacks. In this article, the authors present guidelines for creating…

Objective: The authors developed and validated measures of college drinking expectations, psychosocial influences, and values. Participants: Freshmen at college entry (N = 320) and the end of freshman year (N = 420) participated. Methods: The College Drinking Influences Survey, administered in paper and Web-based versions, consists of 3 distinct…

Using data collected in 2000 on a racially and ethnically diverse sample of high school seniors, this study analyzes adolescents' expectations and desires about marriage and parenthood, including unwed parenthood. The conceptual framework combines family context, opportunity cost, and social-psychological perspectives. Each perspective receives…

The Talkback Project used blog software to involve eighth-grade language arts students, preservice teachers, and parents in online discussion of young adult novels and their personal connections with them. The author shares the challenges associated with the project--including the implications of Internet safety and legal concerns associated with…

This study was conducted by members of a site of the California Writing Project in partnership with a large, urban, low-SES school district where 93% of the students speak English as a second language and 69% are designated Limited English Proficient. Over an eight-year period, a relatively stable group of 55 secondary teachers engaged in ongoing…

Accepting the image of computer technology as incompatible with women reinforces the long history of women's disassociation from technology. In terms of both literacy and computer technology, women's stories are not being told. How female re-entry students in a two-year college experience computer literacy and technology and what their…

With the increase in workplace English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) literacy education programs, there is a need to assess whether the attention given to improving basic skills and English language proficiency has made a change in the participant and in the workplace. Such evaluations often use both qualitative and quantitative measures of program…

This book focuses on a range of instructional practices that promote children's understanding and build meaning into their academic learning experience. Actual practices uncovered in a 2-year investigation of 140 classrooms in a variety of high-poverty school settings are described and analyzed in a comprehensive demonstration of what…

The cultural compatibility hypothesis suggests that black children attending an Afrocentric school (the culturally compatible condition) should have more positive outcomes, as indicated by ethnic identity, future expectations, and optimism, than black adolescents in a mainstream school (cultural incompatibility condition). Adolescents from an…