In this article, we review some of the ways socioeconomic status has been measured on assessments and the issues associated with measuring SES of students, issues which are not limited to statistical concerns. We also present possible proxy measures that could be used as a means of potentially overcoming some of the problems with current measures…

It has been reported that the cultural-historical experiences of ethnic group members can play a role in the literacy beliefs of those members. Socioeconomic conditions can also influence the belief system of the groups' constituents. This study investigated parents' and children's beliefs pertaining to early literacy acquisition as related to the…

A study examined the effects of race, class, and gender on writing. Data from the 6-year longitudinal study was carried out from 1989 to 1995 at City College of City University of New York. Subjects were African-American, Latino, Asian, and White students enrolled in three composition classes, one at each of the two levels of basic writing and one…

For over a decade, Latino immigrants, especially those of Mexican origin, have been at the heart of the immigration debate and have borne the brunt of conservative populism. Contributing factors to the public reaction to immigrants in general and Latinos specifically include the sheer size of recent immigration, the increasing prevalence of…

This longitudinal study examined the associations between awareness of liking by peers and sociometric status to children's sociometric decisions and dyadic friendship choices. Subjects, 155 children in grades 1, 2 and 3, completed traditional sociometric nominations and sociometric ratings, and were asked to evaluate the nominations and ratings…

Mastering mathematics has become more important than ever in the United States. Students with a strong grasp of mathematics have an advantage in academics and in the job market. The eighth grade is a critical point in mathematics education. Achievement at that stage clears the way for students to take rigorous high school mathematics and science…

This issue of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) "Policy Notes" highlights some of the viewpoints, research, and data presented at the 1996 ETS Invitational Conference on Latino Education Issues. The meeting brought together four presenters who are nationally recognized scholars with experience with issues related to the educational…

This study combined a social capital-oriented status attainment approach, a life course perspective, and a risk approach that features analysis of subgroups at particularly high risk, to examine the determinants of adult achievement among at-risk males. Achievement was operationalized as socioeconomic attainment and included outcomes related to…

This study examined the relationship between the security of preschool children's attachment relationship to their parents and how they negotiated and managed hypothetical conflict with peers. Participating were 66 preschool-age children recruited from child care facilities and residing in a large urban area in the southeastern United States. The…

This research tested a structural equation model of educational outcomes for three socioeconomic status (SES) groups of African-American students enrolled in a community college (total sample of 315). The structural model, which was based on a variant of Tinto's (1987) model, contained two exogenous constructs, educational intentions and…

This report distills hundreds of indicators from both domestic and international sources to determine how the United States compares to other countries and to its own past performance in competitiveness. It attempts to establish a baseline of some key education and training indicators that, taken together, show where the nation stands and where it…

The aim of this paper is to expand the conceptualization of social capital to guide investigations of the construct in educational settings. Based on fieldwork in six U.S. high schools, the authors present a framework for studying the effects of school-based forms of social capital on adolescents' academic development. The study identified six…

Noting that it is by studying children's regular activities and their roles and interpersonal relationships that we come to understand how children develop as members of their cultural groups, this study examined children growing up in urban settings in a variety of societies. The study used an ecological perspective largely based on…

Following a previous study's finding that demographic and psychosocial factors mediated the effect of ethnicity in predicting standardized reading performance, this study examined the effects of these predictors on immigrant adolescents' reading achievement. It investigated the extent to which Asian-origin and Spanish-speaking groups differed in…

This book uses data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) to examine whether students who attend restructured high schools learn more and have access to a more equal education. The NELS:88 examined the educational status and progress of a large, nationally representative sample of 8th grade students, retesting and…