Examines the origins of Tennessee's Project Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) and explores what it was about Tennessee in the mid-1980s that fostered the development of this experimental approach to class size. Highlights the connection between the research world and the political world that resulted in the STAR project. (SLD)

Addresses functional behavioral assessment (FA) concerns within the context of speculation about the possible functions served by mandating the use of FA in 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Suggests that the nature of public policy may deserve as much attention as research findings. (Author/CR)

Considers the political and gender issues involved in the provision of trade training for girls in London (England). Focuses on the strategies adopted by the Women's Industrial Council in their campaign to provide trade training for girls and expounds that the Council intended to enhance the economic position of industrial women. (CMK)

Explores the criminalization of young people's alternative cultural spaces as a strategy of social and cultural control, a defense of mainstream cultural space and its boundaries. Contemporary social control, the emerging political economy of urban life, and the evolving connections of youth, crime, and cultural space are considered. (SLD)

This case study traces the formation of a school district profoundly affected by race, political, sociological, and economic factors by examining a district in Cincinnati (Ohio) from the turn of the century through the 1950s. The study confirms the relationship between economic participation and educational opportunities. (SLD)

Explores ways that the study of special educational needs have changed in the last decade and a half of educational policy-making. Focuses on key theoretical changes and shifts of emphasis in substantive concerns. Notes tendencies to allow social and political values to guide educational provision instead of psychological or sociological…

Urges audiologists and speech-language pathologists working in school settings to become involved in studies of treatment outcomes and clinical trials. (DB)

Provides three different accounts of a gender equity project in a grade 10 science class. Illustrates different rhetorical forms for representing research and different assumptions about gender, equity, pedagogy, and the representation of data. Contains 33 references. (DDR)

High-stakes tests seriously threaten excellence and national standards. Unchecked, they will stifle many excellent schools and drive gifted teachers from classrooms. Bad tests, used to make high-stakes decisions, will lead to unnecessarily low standards, undesirable educational practices, shortchanged students, and underprepared citizens.…

This article discusses social hierarchy and uses graduation exit exams to show how social class relations are manifest in school practice. After deconstructing the negative, ideas are put forward for reform and educators are urged to join in a movement to transform hierarchical and excluding relations in school and society. (Contains references.)…

School-effectiveness research (SER) has been criticized for being a socially and politically decontextualized body of literature that supports inequitable reforms. Critics rightly address several problems within the SER field: overclaiming (that furthers the Right's political/social agenda), continued undertheorizing, and inability to control…

Examines the development of music education in Hong Kong. Describes political, economic, and cultural tensions in the context of the musical styles taught in Hong Kong secondary schools. Discusses the historical context, content/structure, and control of musical knowledge. Offers a model of music as a social construction. Includes references. (CMK)

Three cohorts of South African high school students in the black township of Alexandra completed questionnaires on township life in 1987, 1989, and 1992, respectively. In all three contexts youth reported a high exposure to violence. When the violence occurred in the context of intracommunity conflict (in 1992) it was construed to be the most…

A college financial aid administrator argues that good student loan programs are being discontinued because of politics and territoriality, and calls on the banking industry to enter into a more productive partnership with higher education, families, and associations to solve some of the problems of student loan financing and develop good public…

Examines specific sociocultural factors influencing homosexual identity expression for gay and lesbian adolescents. Using the Negotiated Identity Model on a sample of 172 self-identified homosexual adolescents reveals that variables for gay males included political ideology, socioeconomic status, heterosexual friends, and gender nonconformity.…