Economic, educational, social, and housing patterns existing among the entire Hispanic population and among the different Hispanic heritage groups (Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc.) in Wisconsin were examined using data from the 1980 Census of Population and Housing. Data showed that of the 63,000 Hispanics living in Wisconsin in 1980, 65% were…

The college careers of students who had participated in the Advanced Placement Program (AP) in secondary school were studied, based on extensive information on 4,814 students who participated in the Personal Qualities Project, a longitudinal study in nine colleges and universities. The project included information on 1,115 AP and 3,699 non-AP…

In 1985 the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessed the literacy skills of America's young adults. The survey stressed the complexity and diversity of literary tasks in American society rather than using a simplistic single standard for literacy. NAEP convened panels of experts whose deliberations led to this definition of…

Americans generally lack foreign language competence, and their exposure to foreign languages in the United States is inadequate. Foreign language instruction is deficient in both quality and quantity, and although there are indications of improvement in both areas, it will be many years before the effects of improvements are clear. The…

The purpose of this project was to develop three mailing brochures that would describe the basic cultural differences that exist among the prominent bilingual groups in Eastern Pennsylvania. These brochures could be used to enhance the vocational education environment by providing the vocational instructor working with limited English speaking…

Students drop out of school for a wide variety of reasons. Programs to discourage dropping out must therefore accommodate the actual needs of individual students rather than aim at the assumed needs of the "typical dropout." This document reviews school policies and programs that could affect dropout tendencies positively. Among these…

This report focuses on effective urban schools in the context of desegregation. The introduction takes a retrospective and prospective look at desegregation in terms of: (1) progress since the last report; (2) the changing focus of equal educational opportunity; (3) an agenda for the 1980s; and (4) equity and choice. The second section provides…

Background information, units of study, and bibliographies that teachers can use to introduce students in grades 5-12 to a systematic study of worldwide human populations are provided. The first section discusses world population problems. The author stresses that developed nations must be concerned with rampant human population growth in the…

Two intermediate elementary schools in the Bay Shore District of Bay Shore, New York, were studied to assess the impact upon student achievement of a program in cooperative learning applied to mathematics, reading, and writing. The schools include the Gardiner Manor and South Country Schools; in the 1986-87 school year, 510 students attended the…

A collection of essays that explores the links among women and communicative power from a variety of perspectives, this monograph focuses on issue analysis and suggestions for future research. The articles and their authors are as follows (1) "Women and Communicative Power: Introduction" (Carol Ann Valentine); (2) "Genderlect,…

Analysis of data from the High School and Beyond panel study indicates that the willingness to consider single motherhood can be linked to the following: (1) nonconforming behavior; (2) educational opportunity costs; and (3) for whites and Hispanics, depression. This report examined 13,061 females from the 1980 sophomore cohort who responded to…

This paper studies the needs and strengths of rural schools with the intent of improving rural science education. It examines the history of rural schools, and posits a rural-to-urban continuum of characteristics, citing studies that indicate rural schools are more effective in some ways than urban schools. The paper looks at needs of rural/small…

Academic socialization is a process whereby students acquire the competencies necessary to function in the classroom. Academic competencies include not only a high level of proficiency in English, critical thinking skills, and the ability to control the relationship between language and logic, but also social and cultural skills. Although academic…

An ethnographic study of the intake process involving the formal assessment, placement, and educational programming of 12 Hispanic deaf/hearing impaired children, aged 3-8, in both a private school for the deaf and the New York City public schools, was conducted over a 2-year period (1984-1986). Participant observation, interviewing, and…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the communication training needs of managers in large businesses; (2) sociolinguistic signals of role in university office-hour interactions; (3) the determinants of participation in…