This is an imaginary first-person account of a 15-year-old Portuguese student who has spent a year and a half in an American high school. While conceding that the language barrier did prove difficult for him at first, the student says that language was not the overwhelming problem he expected it to be. He proceeds to explain six features of life…

Discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in the Strickland case that school board members must know the "basic, unquestioned constitutional rights" of all students and that individual board members may be liable to damage suits filed by students whose rights have been violated. (JG)

Argues that the crisis of the American social order and the crisis of American intellectual life, taken together, pose a most precise challenge to Black intellectuals in America. Black intellectuals, it is argued, have lost their way because they have tended to substitute their reality for the world's and because they have become estranged from…

Suggests that two settings may create different norms and standards which cause teachers to perceive and react differently to objectively similar child behaviors. (Author/DEP)

The question of whether criminology and criminal justice are distinct fields is addressed in two papers. Differences between criminology and criminal justice are delineated by emphasizing formal definitions of the field(s), occupational roles, contemporary educational trends, and future development. According to John P. Conrad, criminology is the…

Correctional officers, often subject to sustained job stress and ambiguity, must possess adequate coping skills to deal with a hostile clientele. Psychological screening, therefore, assumes an important role in correctional officer recruitment. Prior to a recruitment drive, 650 employed correctional officers completed an MMPI and a biographical…

Teachers can improve classroom discipline in a number of ways. An objective grading system that is based on academic performance alone will assure students that they are being fairly graded, whether or not they are liked by the teacher. Discipline and self respect are related and hinge upon the perception in students that they are learning…

This paper reports on approaches shown to be successful in preventing and dealing with disruptive behavior in the classroom. The studies on preventing classroom disruptions state that the best prevention is effective instruction, achieved through lending increased importance to teacher preparation programs that emphasize teaching content,…

Compared to the United States labor force as a whole, blacks are overrepresented in social service careers and underrepresented in technical and executive careers. This study examined the possibility that the psychosocial environment provided by black colleges may help to cause or perpetuate the distribution of blacks among careers. The faculties…

Based on 47 recommendations for administrative and legislative action set forth in the final report on reducing violence, vandalism, and disruption in the New Jersey public schools, this plan outlines the implementation responsibilities of the state department of education and other agencies. Topics covered include coordination and implementation,…

The manner in which hermeneutics (the study of the interpretive process) has treated the phenomenon of interpretation is examined in this paper. Following a historical review of hermeneutics from its Hellenic roots through the phase of traditional hermeneutics to the major reformulation of the field by Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey…

The report documents a problem solving approach to the adoption of procedures for dealing with serious behavior problems of severely emotionally disturbed and autistic students in California public schools. Summarized are a review of the literature, an analysis of general techniques of student control, and a list of advantages and disadvantages of…

The introduction to this paper considers competency-based education, the goals of education, and the need for some social indicators of how well students are meeting these goals. The main body of the paper looks at competency differences, instructional approaches, and educational research in several areas: focus of new research; natural…