Applied an internal criteria for the detection of bias to standardization data for the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts. Despite sizable social class differences in mean scores, differences in rank orders of item difficulties were negligible. There was little evidence of test bias. (Author)

Reviews research on the family's role in eventual teenage sexual behavior. Finds fathers to be almost completely absent as sources of sex education for their children. (RH)

This study examined differences between 232 middle- and lower-class pre- and postmenarcheal adolescents and differences across four developmental levels for the postmenarcheal group. Postmenarcheal adolescents had more problems, but were higher in self-concept, supporting the view that menarche onset is a positive event for most females.…

Discussion of the digital divide focuses on a social divide rather than a lack of access to information technology for specific groups. Topics include historic trends in technology diffusion; policy implications; motivational barrier to technology use; knowledge and skill barrier; content barrier; and social network barrier. (LRW)

Illustrates how societies can be judged by the athletic games they play through presentation of an exchange of letters appearing in the 1872 issues of the Upper Canada College newspaper. Shows how cricket, representing imperial society and muscular Christianity, was threatened by the Yankees and "American baseball." (LS)

Introduces the role of law and government in consumer protection in Japan. Suggests that recognition of cultural differences between U.S. and Japanese societies can provide insights that will stimulate the U.S. consumer movement to confront the anticonsumer structures in Japan while respecting their internal values. (Author/JOW)

Describes three conceptual models that have been used to explain the relationship between cultural factors and the counseling process. Offers a fourth model of conceptualizing the role of ethnicity or class in the counseling process. An example of how the model can be used as a guide for school counselors is also given. (CH)

Encourages counselors and other human development professionals to provide human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) prevention programing that is sensitive to social and cultural contexts of groups being addressed. Focuses on women, gay and bisexual men, African Americans, and Latinos. Provides necessary…

Presents an overview of the sociocultural differences between U.S. and Asian Indian cultures, the implications of those differences, and suggestions for counseling techniques and approaches for working with Asian Indian immigrants. Discusses immigration pattern and history of Asian Indians, looks at cultural orientation of Asian Indians, and…

Discusses recent books and articles on social class in the United States. Notes how U.S. citizens are lulled, first, into accepting the notion of classlessness and, then, into an Us-versus-Them stance that pits teachers against an ostensibly stupid and surly, albeit ill-defined, group of "others." (SR)

Notes that it has not been easy to find a discourse to address the ways that unexamined attitudes about race, class, language, and gender perpetuate failure in schools. Describes briefly the work of the Committee on English Education's Commission on Teacher Education for Teachers of Urban, Rural, and Suburban Students of Color and the attempts to…

Suggests that an examination of rhetorical practices at the local bar is instructive: (1) the barroom is predictably different from the university writing classroom; and (2) the barroom is surprisingly similar to the university writing classroom. Shows that the rhetoric that is valued most highly in today's writing classroom operates differently…

The existence of social differences in educational achievement as a social fact presents the sociology of education with a challenge to which it has responded with indifferent success. It is argued that contemporary explanations that dismiss the existence and relevance of differences in cognitive performance arising as a consequence of class…

The social class differences impact students' engagement with literacy practices in the classrooms. Teachers must hear and validate stories of poverty to gain class-specific understanding.