This paper examines specific elements of a much wider study that attempted to ascertain the reasons for under-achievement in a large comprehensive school in the Welsh valleys. Specific Academic performance at General Certificate of Secondary Education (G.C.S.E.) level was poor in Randall, the main case school, in relation to other schools with…

The politics of body size has been the topic of intriguing feminist work. Although in the author's view this issue is still undertheorized, the author has long sought for a way to bring what "does" exist in the literature into her academic activities. The opportunity arose when, as a graduate student at the University of Michigan in…

The initial motivation for the study was the view of multilingualism as a resource, in which all languages and literacies at the disposal of a learner are used for his/her benefit. In turn, interest was motivated by the notion of literacy practices as social practices linked to broader cultural and socioeconomic conditions (Street, 2001). Interest…

Although substantial scholarship of a theoretical and empirical nature has accumulated on the young child's developing self-concept, scholars have not to any great extent examined the child's self-knowledge as a spontaneously occurring process-in-action. This paper highlights findings of empirical research as well as classroom vignettes, personal…

The authors' approach to using pattern-centered analyses and longitudinal data addresses how configurations of personal and contextual factors forecast the educational achievement and attainments of different youth across adolescence. Here, they discuss various types of pattern-centered analyses and provide an empirical illustration of how these…

In this article, the authors examine educational stratification in Taiwan against the background of an ethnically based political economy. They investigate how educational attainment is related to ethnicity and other background factors, such as parental class and education, and if these relationships changed over time as Taiwan became a more…

This study investigated the relationship between adolescent life- satisfaction and bonding to adults/developing meaningful roles in the neighborhood within a pilot study of slightly modified version of the CDC Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MSYRBS) in a southern state in the USA. Overall, 43% of students reported that they were…

This article investigates the contribution skills development can make in promoting South Africa's wider socio-economic development. It provides a broad overview of the emerging gap between those who are benefiting from South Africa's transition to democracy and those who are not. Overcoming these worsening social conditions has become a major…

This study examined whether the impact of contextual-level socioeconomic disadvantage on adolescent mental health is contingent upon individual-level perceptions of social support. Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a panel survey of a nationally representative United States sample (analytic N =…

This exploratory study investigates whether associations between social network measures and substance use differ according to type of substance and social context. The analyses use data obtained from 13 and 15 year olds (N=3146) in a school-based survey and focus on three social network measures: sociometric position (e.g. group, dyad, isolate);…

The present study was an investigation of the potential moderating effect of social support on academic performance for students living in poverty. Data were collected in one urban middle school from 164 primarily Hispanic students using the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, & Elliott, 2000) and students' course…

While increased academic requirements for high school graduation have long been advocated, current research shows a mixed record in mathematics and science achievement among American middle and high school students relative to some of their international peers. In response to these concerns and other calls for reform, states have increased the…

Researchers have disagreed about the extent to which differences in achievement based on socioeconomic status (SES) accumulate during the school year as compared to the summer, and the literature has not fully assessed the contributions of social contexts--in the form of both school and neighborhood poverty concentration and racial and ethnic…

This paper presents education finance trends for Bangladesh since 2000. It shows that while government spending on education as a proportion of national income has stagnated, it has increased in real terms. Real increases in education spending have resulted in substantial increases in per student spending in basic education. At primary, enrolment…

The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) to explore the use of a new rating scale that measures teachers' attitudes toward their students and (b) to investigate the attitudes of inclusive teachers toward their students with disabilities using the rating scale. Fifty inclusive elementary teachers in 12 northeast Ohio schools rated all of…