Inappropriate assessment procedures result in the misdiagnosis, misidentification, and misplacement of many African American students in special education. This article discusses poor teacher judgment, lack of cultural awareness among teachers, cultural discontinuity between home and school, and bias inherent in current tests used in special…

Overrepresentation of African American boys in disciplinary and special education referrals has been a national concern. This study used functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and behavioral intervention plans (BIPs) as a means to prevent disproportionality of African American boys. Based on FBA results, interventions were developed for four…

This article emerges from a recent review of evidence, conducted by the authors and others, on the lifelong barriers to widening participation in higher education in England. This has led us to a consideration of the quality and relevance of the research activity in this large field of endeavour, and to the creation of a typology of the kinds of…

An innovative interdisciplinary project at California State University, Long Beach, was designed to increase the attractiveness of the geosciences (physical geography, geology, and archaeology) to underrepresented groups. The goal was to raise awareness of the geosciences by providing summer research opportunities for underrepresented high school…

A high rate of absence of teachers from their posts is a serious obstacle to delivery of education in many developing countries, but hard evidence on the problem has been scarce. This study, carried out as part of a new multi-country survey project, is the first systematic investigation in Peru into the extent and causes of teachers' absence from…

This paper examines school-related policies and strategies that have been proposed or justified, at least in part, on the basis of their potential for reducing black-white test score gaps. These include strategies, one of which is greater integration, to reduce differences in the quality of teachers faced by black and white students; school and…

For most of Minnesota's 150 years of statehood, its distinctive economic advantages were largely a function of its natural resources, such as timber, taconite and tourism. Today, while these and other resources remain cornerstones of the state economy, it is clear that the intellectual capacity of Minnesota's people is emerging as a promising…

More than ever before, educators across the United States are enabling a wider and more ethnically diverse proportion of students to achieve success in AP[R]. Significant inequities, however, which jeopardize traditionally underserved students' chances at college success, remain. This "Report" uses a combination of state, national, and…

This final report describes strategies identified from interviews with educators in eight school districts in three states (Arkansas, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania) concerning the disproportionate number of students from racial/ethnic minority groups receiving special education services. The first section describes the methodology of the case study…

This is the first year-end report produced as part of the on-going evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Early College High School Initiative. The program provides funding and support for the establishment of Early College High Schools, which are organized to allow all enrolled students the opportunity to earn a high school diploma…

This final report describes activities and achievements of a 3-year federally supported personnel preparation project that prepared preservice teachers for service in low-income/high minority schools by pairing theory with practice in school settings. Faculty of the University of Colorado recruited 41 university students to participate in the…

This collection of papers discusses issues related to the overidentification of minority students in special education. After a "Foreword" (Senator James M. Jeffords) and an introduction, "Racial Inequality in Special Education" (Daniel J. Losen and Gary Orfield), 11 chapters include: (1) "Community and School Predictors…

One of the generally accepted premises of current economic thinking is that a large and expanding proportion of growth is tied to what has come to be known as the "knowledge economy" or equivalently, the innovation sector. Despite recent U.S. Census Bureau data indicating that Latinos now constitute the largest minority group of the U.S.…

New Mexicans of Native American and Hispanic ancestry participate less often and less successfully in the higher education system than do other groups. This fact has been demonstrated repeatedly in various studies and is exacerbated by a cycle of poverty, inadequate academic and financial preparation for college, and other issues related to…

This report contains the proceedings of a hearing on the overidentification of students with disabilities that was conducted on October 4, 2001, before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. The report includes opening statements by Chairman John Boehner and Representative George Miller and the…