This book introduces the issues involved in the education of bilingual students and the role that classroom assessment plays in their school experiences. After summarizing what research tells educators, the book provides case studies of a group of highly skilled teachers assessing bilingual children. These stories capture the intricacies of…

This report presents a statistical portrait of the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of blacks in the United States. The portrait is based on data from the March Supplement to the 1990 and 1989 Current Population Surveys (CPS) with additional data from the October 1988 Supplement to the CPS. The data are estimates based on sample…

This book explores how learning is the lifetime quest to understand personal identity, purpose, and meaning while conforming and adapting to the perceived and real confines of a paradoxical society. It examines the complex social experience of learning, revealing how culture, gender, race, and other societal factors shape and mold an individual's…

The thesis of this paper is that constructivism and similar pedagogic formulations are problematic because: (1) being nondialectical they close off possibilities for dialogue about issues such as those discussed in this paper; and (2) they are embedded in forms of discourse which privilege middle-class culture, values, language, and ways of…

It is often the case that lip service is paid to the strength of indigenous culture while the implications of indigenous peoples' strengths are disregarded in actual project design. This paper shows that indigenous peoples and societies are able to cope with an extraordinary number of permutations, and that their coping mechanisms are both…

Tracing the nationwide development of the American community college from initial concept to its present position as the largest and fastest-growing sector of higher education, this book relates the development of the colleges to social and economic conditions in the country. Following a foreword and preface, the first two chapters examine the…

This annotated bibliography includes 438 selected references to books, journal articles, essays within edited volumes, and dissertations that provide significant information about peaceful societies. Peaceful societies are groups that have developed harmonious social structures that allow them to get along with each other, and with outsiders,…

This book examines the phenomenon of multilingualism in West Africa from a historical, social, and environmental perspective. Chapter 1 explains why the catalogue of African languages established by linguists is not reliable for assessing the linguistic diversity of the region. It also discusses studies that show that the linguistic behavior in…

A report on hate-crimes in the 1980s in Los Angeles County (California) found that these acts had increased in number. Hate crimes are defined as criminal acts directed at an individual, institution, or business expressly because of race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. Over the period 1980 to 1989, religiously motivated hate crimes…

Of all of the Southeast Asian populations, Cambodian refugees are at the highest risk for physical and psychosocial problems. In order to treat them, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of Khmer culture. This paper describes the Khmer value of equilibrium as it affects such things as home remedies, for children's illnesses, managing…

This paper discusses economic, social, and political trends and values/beliefs that will affect the quality of life of persons with developmental disabilities and their families to the year 2000. The paper describes four plausible future scenarios: "America Revitalized"; "Post-Industrial Reformation"; "The Stressed Society"; and "The…

Two strikingly contrasting culture groups, Latin Americans and Anglo Americans, overlap in a Borderlands that straddles the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. This overlap began with the Aztec conquest by Cortes which triggered the intermixing and miscegenation between Spaniards and Indians that produced a mestizo people…

The relationship between education, social class, and upward mobility is examined, along with mechanisms inherent in keeping the status quo in education. The relationship between the student and the university is also explored. Although college is often seen as a mechanism of upward mobility, particularly among the poor and minorities, colleges…

The study provides evidence of a broad range of difference in child-rearing practices among 47 Chicanas, living in a midwestern city of approximately 250,000, during a structured teaching task with their kindergarten-aged children. Maternal behaviors were observed/measured during two 5-minute observations of a mother teaching her child to make a…

This paper discusses the issue of pluralism and British society. The following topics are covered: (1) why it is desirable for Great Britain to be a pluralistic society; (2) how far the needs of minority communities can be accommodated without threatening British status quo; (3) what happens in other countries; and (4) what lessons can be learned…