A 3-day conference brought together health and education experts to explore responses to adolescent health problems and to suggest ways to implement the recommendations put forward in "Fateful Choices: Healthy Youth for the 21st Century," by Fred M. Hechinger. Conference participants identified a number of adolescent health problems and the areas…

What is being done at a local level, in the neighborhood, to prevent and discourage small-time drug dealers is discussed. Partnerships of law enforcement and grassroots citizens' groups are working in many places to reduce the availability and impact of drugs in their communities. The book opens with a discussion of drug use and the urban…

The articles in this reader provide a review of the history of education policy in relation to issues of equality and inequality. They also offer an overview and critique of specific areas of policy and a look at the ways policies operate in practice. The eight papers of Part 1, "History of Education Policy," outline the history of…

Almost one quarter of American children live in poverty, and the effects of poverty on these children are mediated by many family and social conditions. Poverty affects parenting practices and the home environment, with consequential effects on child adjustment and functioning. Changes in income cause changes in parenting and the quality of the…

As many as 40 percent of America's school-aged children are at-risk of failure within the current educational system. Many factors outside of school, such as poverty and debilitating parent and family influences, contribute to student failure. Within the school, the most effective factor of intervention for at-risk students is the individual…

The phrase "prosocial gang" may seem a contradiction but such gangs do exist. This book describes a gang intervention program, Aggression Replacement Training (ART), which resulted in reduced arrest rates among violent gangs in a large urban area. The book opens with a list of prosocial gangs followed by an analysis of the development,…

The effectiveness of a secondary alternative school for at-risk students was studied with respect to the development and implementation of certain components that are generally thought to be critical to the success of at-risk education. The Hamilton Optional Program for Education (HOPE) school of Hamilton (Ohio) was the study site. Twenty percent…

Thirteen papers explore the African American experience of poverty and ghetto formation; forces shaping contemporary urban poverty; and mobility and family strategies among groups differentiated by ethnicity, race, and labor market position. The introduction, "The Urban 'Underclass' as a Metaphor of Social Transformation" (M. B. Katz),…

Ultimately, Hispanic Americans will choose whether they wish to become part of the larger American society, or remain separate from it, but public policy can and does influence that choice. Chapters 1 and 2 show how public policy in the form of two federal laws, the Bilingual Education Act and the Voting Rights Act, encouraged Hispanics to reject…

This book explores the U.S. gang problem, based on the author's 35 years of experience as a high school and junior high school teacher, principal, and community organizer in Oakland and Los Angeles (California). Chapters discuss the subculture of gang worlds, reasons why youth are attracted to gangs, how educators can reach out to students, the…

This printed guide is designed to accompany a 60-minute television program (available on videotape) on positive parenting, including: the use of time, discipline, respect and responsibility, and community parenting, with interviews with Mary Pipher of "In the Shelter of Each Other" and Dr. Bruce Perry (Baylor University), who conducted the…

The deeply fractured nature of U.S. society is examined, focusing on poor and working class people in cities. Based on data from 154 poor and working class young adults aged 23 to 35, the study reveals the ways in which this urban generation has suffered from social change. The following chapters are included: (1) "Voices of Hope and Despair:…

The United States Senate's Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice heard testimony on minority overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system and the sentencing of minorities within that system. In particular, the Subcommittee heard testimony from eight witnesses who suggested short- and long-term approaches for helping to eliminate racial bias in the…

In its examination of the place of didactics in Scandinavian curricula, this paper discusses didactics as theory and prescription, at different levels of abstraction, and as scientific discipline. It focuses on the process of curriculum planning and selection in two areas: (1) preparing curriculum programs for teaching and learning nationally and…

This book presents articles from 25 concerned teachers and professors explaining why and how they integrate inquiry into troubling social issues with the study of language and literature and make it the subject of discussion and writing-to-learn activities. The titles and authors of the 19 contributions to the book are: (1) "Educating for the…