Addresses the need of involving the family and aspects of child development into helping children achieve academic success. Several collaborative efforts are highlighted, and the key features of strategies for collaboration are discussed. The article concludes with analysis of these collaborative efforts to determine the lessons to be learned. (GR)

Traces the development of critical scholarship in the sociology of education, focusing on its attempts to explain failure for low-income youth. The author also examines contemporary theoretical work in "critical" literacy and three historical instances of when critical literacy was practiced. It is argued that helping at-risk students…

Examines the controversy surrounding school choice policymaking and discusses emerging means-based proposals designed to give low-income children a chance to attend high-quality private or parochial schools. Legal issues regarding the full choice movement in education are addressed as well as the political forces arrayed against it. (GR)

The 26 brief notes of this feature provide a snapshot of the status of blacks in higher education. Admissions policies, black enrollment, affirmative action, and actions with the potential for detrimental effects on blacks in higher education are among the issues considered. (SLD)

Explores helping students of color, particularly African Americans, who for various reasons are underserved by urban schools. Twelve European American cultural practices are described that could create discontinuity for African American students or for any student who is culturally different. (GR)

Our national focus on school improvement and its relationship to employment is too narrow for American Indian education. School reform strategies must address the linguistic and sociocultural uniqueness of American Indian learners. Native communities and tribes must partner with schools, guiding education from an Indian perspective and creating a…

Examines issues concerning school vouchers as a way to improve the nation's public schools. Focuses on: (1) inequality in teaching and schooling; (2) public education and social mobility; (3) the Cleveland, Ohio school voucher program; (4) how school vouchers undermine public schools; and (5) the political debate. Asserts that voucher programs are…

A study examined 12 suburban preservice teachers' reactions to an educational field experience in an economically disadvantaged rural school district. Most participants' reactions were negative and based on stereotypes. They did not grasp the complications of poverty nor how geographic isolation might affect this school district. Recommendations…

The International Conference on Rural Aging (June 2000) endorsed policy recommendations in the following areas: health and active aging of older rural people; education, participation, and rights of older rural people; policy development, advocacy, and implementation; components of successful model policies and programs; implications for…

This article describes a gifted program that identified students after entry into the program. Students are judged suitable for gifted education after having had opportunities to develop and exhibit behaviors within a gifted classroom. The result has been student opportunities and achievements that span the chasm between excellence and equity.…

New Zealand's Education Review Office and England's Office for Standards in Education attempt to construct school failure as the clear responsibility of schools in order to gain ideological power as agents of accountability. These "politics of blame" are contested in both settings by an alternative "contextual" claim involving…

Describes a program of the California Western School of Law to encourage inner city high school students to aspire to higher education and possibly law school. The young students, usually about 25, attend weekly sessions at the law school where law students lead such activities as role-playing job interviews, a mock criminal trial, and analysis of…

Analyzes National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data to examine whether adolescents living in low-income cities have less accurate information about labor market institutions than affluent teens and whether information influences attainment. All teens underestimate educational requirements. Inner-city teens have less information than those in other…

Discusses why the achievement gap between poor and middle-class children persists and what can be done to close it, explaining that the latest version of Title I does not provide necessary levels of resources to compensate for inequality in educational spending. Examines the importance of preschool educational experiences, suggesting that this…

Parenting practices, including the use of physical discipline, are shaped by multiple influences. Although much research focuses on how parent, child, and dyadic characteristics shape parenting practices, extra-familial resources may also play a role. This paper focuses on how children's experiences of child care during the preschool years may…