This article, utilizing a postmodern mediated cultural framework, critically situates the sociopolitical context of public education within the constructs of a lost ship at sea. Seeking to rupture false assumptions of popular culture and its impact on the learning community, I further explore critical possibilities regarding the intersection of…

While it is recognized that self-concept and self-esteem affect the academic achievement of students, few publications have focused on the affective and psychological needs of students who are gifted and ethnically or culturally diverse. In this article, we extend the discussion of self-concept and achievement by focusing on how racial identity…

In this article, the authors explore the personal, familial, and academic stakes of Native language loss for youth, drawing on narrative data from the Native Language Shift and Retention Project, a five year (2001-06), federally funded study of the nature and impacts of Native language shift and retention on American Indian students' language…

The essays in this collection provide a background for discussions about multiculturalism, cultural politics, and urban crises by illustrating the ways in which race is still a central source of meaning, identity, and power and why it is intensifying as a category, rather than diminishing. Selections include: (1) "Putting 'Race' in Its…

In May 1992 the dropout rate among Hispanic students was 36.6 percent in the Providence (Rhode Island) public schools. A survey was administered in Spanish or English to 232 Hispanic students and 52 teachers at 3 high schools to assess ways to reduce the dropout rate. An attempt to follow up on the Hispanic students listed as dropouts succeeded in…

A survey was administered in Spanish or English to 232 Hispanic students and 52 teachers at 3 Providence (Rhode Island) high schools to assess student needs and find solutions to the dropout problem. An attempt to follow up on Hispanic students listed as dropouts succeeded in locating only 15, some of whom were actually enrolled in alternative…

This study engaged the narratives and conversations of five white teachers in an urban school district as they explored the implications associated with seeing themselves as raced individuals. It also explored how an awareness of these narratives shaped the instructional environment created by these teachers. An important element in the analysis…

This book offers practical guidance to black parents on how to raise children with positive racial identities and self-identities. Part 1 explains the development of racial identity in the various phases of childhood as it is fostered in the family. Part 2 discusses how to help children navigate the larger world during the school years and beyond.…

The experiences of a white teacher in an integrated private kindergarten illustrate the consciousness of race that permeates our society. The doubt felt by many African Americans that African American children should attend predominantly white schools is explored, as are the doubts felt by an African American teacher who thinks she might be more…

The redesign of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has resulted in improved usefulness of the data set to conduct policy relevant research on Hispanic student achievement. Improvements include changing the procedure for ethnic identification to self-reporting, modifying sample selection, and planning for the conduct of special…

A survey of births of Hispanic parentage in 1985 in 23 states and the District of Columbia, where approximately 92 percent of America's Hispanic population resides, yielded the following statistical information: (1) 372,814 babies were born to Hispanic mothers; (2) nearly two-thirds of the mothers were Mexican; (3) Puerto Rican, Central and South…

As "Saving the African American Child" (the report of the Task Force on Black Academic and Cultural Excellence) emphasizes, African American educators must be aggressive in carrying out their inherent obligation to eliminate the impediments to growth and development which restrict the life chances of African Americans. Black America…

In the fall of 1971, the Lynchburg, Virginia public schools began the implementation of a plan to eliminate all traces of racial segregation in the school system. All pupils in the ninth and tenth grades in the city were enrolled in one of the two high schools, and those in the eleventh and twelfth were enrolled in the other. Pupils were assigned…

The major interest of this study was to examine the interaction between selected ethnic cues in the aural and visual channels and the effect they have on student perception of an information source. Some 186 sixth grade students were divided equally along black and white racial lines into two groups and shown a filmstrip on drug abuse. Three…

Measurements of self worth show that children in segregated schools, both white and black, have unrealistically high aspirations. Mexican-Americans measure lower than other major ethnic groups in feelings of self worth. There is evidence from social investigations, however, that segregation produces feelings of "imposed inferiority" among minority…