Chile has experienced considerable educational expansion over the past few decades, as well as a privatization reform in 1981 that introduced full parental choice through a voucher system, in the context of a market-oriented transformation of the country. Using a cohort analysis of the 2001 Chilean Mobility Survey, this article examines trends in…

Twenty-five percent of California's elementary schoolchildren attend schools operating on nontraditional, staggered, overlapping attendance calendars collectively referred to as multitrack year-round education (MT-YRE). This case study reveals substantial differences in the characteristics of students and teachers across the four attendance tracks…

The United States Supreme Court ushered in a new era in American history on May 17, 1954 in its monumental ruling in "Brown v Board of Education," Topeka, Kansas. "Brown" is not only the Court's most significant decision on race and equal educational opportunities, but also ranks among the most important cases it has ever decided. In "Brown" a…

America's high school students have higher educational aspirations than ever before, yet these aspirations are being undermined by disconnected educational systems and other barriers. These educational aspirations cut across racial and ethnic lines with scant differences. As this study demonstrates, access to college-preparation-related policy…

Detrimental differences in educational opportunities for students of color continue to exist in the post-Brown United States. This article focuses on inequities in access to higher education by addressing the following question: How do disparities in counseling services affect college access for students of color? Guided by a review of the…

This article argues strong affirmative action for HBCUs involving federal R&D funds and congressional earmarks is needed. Members of Congress must recognize the essential role HBCUs have played in providing educational opportunities for African Americans and economically marginalized White Americans. The "No Child Left Behind" slogan for K-12…

Are children learning when they are "messing about" in sand or water? Is it science? In a workshop presented at the ASE Annual Meeting in Birmingham (January 2003), "Messy science: planning for learning in the foundation stage," delegates examined the nature of an early years curriculum through first-hand experience of a…

Current educational policies regarding equal educational opportunity are confused and often contradictory. There is no clear consensus as to what constitutes an equal opportunity. Most modern educators agree that the modern equal educational movement began in the 1950's with the Supreme Court decision in "Brown vs. the Board of…

Although there is widespread support given to the idea of strong home-school relations, little attention is paid to the issue in teacher education programs. To understand the perspectives prospective teachers bring to their professional program about working with families, we surveyed students just beginning elementary and secondary teacher…

The Learner-Centered Leadership program is a new initiative that provides professional development opportunities to school administrators through a mentoring model. The focus on learner-centered leadership reflects renewed attention to the primary role of teaching and learning in the development of school leadership expertise. With a focus on…

In this paper, the author considers three key issues, which she suggests can contribute to developing 21st century teacher preparation programs that are committed to preparing competent, well-informed, reflective teachers, particularly for students attending inner-city schools, in the context of participatory action research (PAR)--an approach to…

Schooling and the state of student achievement will receive intense scrutiny this year during the observance of the 50th anniversary of "Brown v. Board of Education" (2004). In "Brown" the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the "separate but equal" doctrine that had been established under "Plessy v. Ferguson" (1896) and the legal foundation under which…

If one was an African-American student in a large Northern city 50 years ago, his public school, very likely, would have been segregated--even in New England. Only one year earlier, in "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas," the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that legally sanctioned school segregation violated the 14th Amendment…

Gender differences remain in American schools and influence the learning experiences of girls and boys. Since students spend a large portion of their day in school, it is important to examine the beliefs teachers hold with regard to gender socialization. The purpose of this study was to compare the consistency between the gender beliefs and…

The South African workforce is characterised by racial, gender, occupational and sectoral unevenness in the distribution of skills, employment and training opportunities. This article considers how enterprise training in South Africa contributes to ameliorating, sustaining or exacerbating such inequalities. Using data from the National Skills…