This study used a Vygotskian perspective to compare child rearing values and beliefs of parents, especially in regard to self-directed activities of children, in the United States, Russia, and Estonia. Participating were 60 families, evenly divided by society and social class (middle or working class), each with a child between 28 and 45 months…

Differential language development and preparation for school among young children of different racial and social groups has been asserted for decades. A study focused on mother-child interaction in two common activities: reading children's books and telling narratives about both shared and unshared experiences. A socially diverse group of 46…

The purpose of this study was to compare how learning outcomes are influenced by a number of key student composition (language background, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and gender) and school context variables on a direct writing performance assessment. The sample was randomly selected from a population of 13,604 third graders in 175 public…

A large-scale longitudinal study in Bolivia examined the relationship between adult women's basic education and their social and economic well-being and development. A random sample of 1,600 participants and 600 nonparticipants, aged 15-45, was tracked for 3 years (the final sample included 717 participants and 224 controls). The four adult…

Cognizant of the American high school students' waning test scores and a decreased desire to pursue higher level courses in mathematics and science, there has been a categorical effort to identify the demographic and motivational variables that contribute to mathematics and science achievement. This study utilized the 1992 panel members (8,140…

After adjusting for differences in background, women's average SAT-verbal scores were found to be higher than, or nearly equal to, men's. Although women's average SAT-mathematical scores after adjustment are still lower than men's, they are 25 points higher when adjusted for background. This report's analysis establishes that the background…

Reviews critical historical events affecting status of Blacks between 1950 and 1983; also discusses redistribution of Black students in higher education, contemporary issues facing Black college students, such as undergraduate attrition, and contemporary issues concerning Black faculty and administration, such as holding onto gains made over the…

Discusses contextual factors (geography, community idiosyncrasies, personal relationships, formal resource scarcity, community resource accessibility, external force influence, visibility, "Jack-of-All-Trades") affecting practices of rural child welfare workers. Points out similarities/differences in child welfare work in urban and rural…

Racial differences in the reporting accuracy of parental status characteristics by White and Black high school seniors were investigated using Joreskog's general framework for simultaneous covariance structure analyses of multiple populations. Reliability estimates for Whites were significantly higher than for Blacks due to differences in true…

Oriental Jewish youth in Israel and poor Black American youth must both compete for educational credentials in social situations in which power relationships are heavily weighted against their interests. Their divergent behavioral responses are related to the different world views and corresponding strategies for social advances of the two groups.…

Multiculturalism, with its presumed liberal, humane acceptance of cultural differences is a facade to mask the real agenda for American Indians: acceleration of domestic dependency. Indian cultures, institutions, and humanity are suppressed, manipulated, and crushed by the policies and actions of the government of the United States and its people.…

Study results supported earlier studies which found that individuals tend to attribute internal sources of causality to their successes and external sources of causality to their failures. Students who graduated from college attributed their success to internal factors, while students who did not graduate attributed their failure to external…

The relationship of diverse instructional materials with student performance indicators is studied in a statewide evaluation of educational reform. Observation and teacher survey data were collected, and students were tested in reading, mathematics, and attitudinal areas. Significant performance decrements were associated with the use of diverse…

Compares the cognitive development of four subcultural groups of boys (Black and White, and lower- and middle-class) in order to test Arthur Jensen's theory. Nine-hundred subjects were studied for four years, and memory, intelligence, learning and transfer measures were employed. (Author/RH)

Applies some federal legislation and court opinions relative to citizenship and constitutional rights to Native American education policies and practices, particularly those affecting the Navajo. Contends that the Bureau of Indian Affairs policy of allowing school board members to serve only as advisors abridges the constitutional rights of Native…