Discusses various responses to the author's book "Ways with Words--Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms" (1983). Describes how these reactions have led the author to see things in the work that she had not seen before. Strengths and weaknesses of the book she identifies have implications for the conduct of future ethnographic…

Presents Mina Shaughnessy's 1976 speech, given at a time when great financial crisis threatened to result in the wholesale disestablishment of basic writing programs. Notes grave perils, and outlines some of the truths uncovered through the experience of Open Admissions in higher education, truths that are indestructible despite retrenchments and…

A study using a path-analytic model compared first-year college students enrolled in remedial-type mathematics courses with counterparts enrolled in nonremedial coursework. Results revealed that students enrolled in nonremedial courses entered the institution with many advantages over those enrolled in remedial mathematics. Background variables…

Explores the essence of developmental education, looking at its roots in the American higher education system, and discusses how it evolved into its present state. Provides a student case study and four assumptions underlying the National Association for Developmental Education's working definition of developmental education. Contains 13…

The first of two articles presenting responses from six leaders in the field of developmental education (DE) to questions about the future of DE in the coming century. Topics addressed include the movement of DE from the four- to the two-year institutions, mainstreaming, credentialing, nontraditional students, learning assistance, and better…

Introduces three perspectives on the Hawthorne Elementary School (Houston, Texas) reform effort. The case studies indicate that successful restructuring of schools serving highly disadvantaged communities is possible. (GR)

Addresses the crucial role of families in helping students learn, arguing that the success of schooling depends on the contributions of the home and school/home collaborations. Ways to better understand the everyday lives of children living in poverty are illustrated to help schools increase learning opportunities for all children, even when…

Based on middle-class, white values and assumptions, school restructuring proposed in "first wave reform" will increase inequity and stratification and hamper social mobility for minorities. School choice, outcomes-based education, and secondary track systems are critiqued. When race, culture, and ethnicity influence educational policy, students…

Research on the fairness, effectiveness, and efficiency of selecting students is reported in the context of selecting educationally disadvantaged black students in South Africa for a one-year mathematics- and science-based student-centered compensatory university preparatory program. A formula comprised of weighted mathematics, science, and…

Using Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, which explains how social class influences transmission of educational inequality, this article questions the extent to which various forms of capital also apply to ethnic minorities. Discusses a study of Dutch, Surinamese, Turkish, and Moroccan students, which found that there was no mediating effect…

Discusses how instructors working with at-risk students have effectively used a learning portfolio to increase metacognitive awareness. Describes the learning portfolio as a method that facilitates student participation via a self-assessment of what they have learned about learning. Appended are directions for implementing, monitoring, and…

The HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) program was started 25 years ago in the belief that educationally disadvantaged students (Title I and learning disabled) were bright and that the top priority for supplemental aid for these students should be to help them channel that innate intelligence into learning at a higher level. The students were…

The importance of identifying and nurturing the gifts and talents of young people is now more widely accepted in New Zealand than it has been in the past. In this country the approach to meeting this challenge must reflect an understanding and acknowledgement of Maori conceptions of giftedness and talent. It is proposed here that the…

Cooper, president of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, dismisses the contention that some children are just not able to learn. His organization, in partnership with school districts, has studied the causes of and potential solutions to the achievement gap and has seen encouraging progress in several school districts where…

This past year, Jobs for the Future studied strategies that community colleges are using to improve the quality and effectiveness of their services to low-income youth and adults. Much of this research was conducted for the MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Awards Initiative. Across the country, in urban, rural, and suburban…