School improvement that considers families moves toward greater understanding of learning barriers. Strategies designed to make adolescent students "feel good" must be rejected for those that encourage family involvement by creating family partnerships, using the community as a learning laboratory, promoting performance-oriented tasks that tap…

Traces history of urbanization and problems created by growth of cities. Describes process of homogenization achieved by land-use regulations, income and education differentiation, and racial/ethnic characteristics. Focuses on the sociopolitical-economic challenges of the 1990s. Includes format for three lessons with a case study project and…

Reviews community-based research on the effects of homelessness on children. Homeless children face threats to their future well-being resulting from health problems, hunger, poor nutrition, developmental delays, anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and educational underachievement. Contributing factors may include inadequate shelter,…

Reviews the literature on child victimization as the manifestation of social distress, and evaluates major representative concepts of 9 paradigms identified from 46 theories, models, and perspectives. The following three stages in child victimization theories have occurred: (1) speculations (1960s); (2) introspective explorations (1970s); and (3)…

Explores, in a reprint of the 1989 Junior Division National History Day winning paper, the history of some technological developments in Pennsylvania's coal mining industry. Examines the "breaker boys," youths who sorted coal in severe working conditions. Introduces Ellen Webster Palmer, who addressed the problem by organizing the Boys'…

Presents a teacher's impressions of India, gathered during a Fulbright-sponsored study tour. Examines modernizing influences in the midst of traditional culture, religious cultural groups and potential religious conflict, women's status, and problems due to overpopulation. (CH)

Explores implications of defining the primary problems of African Americans as those faced by males, questioning whether this approach places African-American men and women in conflict. Considers how social problems are constructed. Image formation and manipulation of social issues may contribute to the perception of African-American women as…

Five articles review drawbacks of traditional programs for at-risk youth, discuss alternatives based on a new definition of risk, and cite examples of helpful programs. They focus on identifying at-risk youth, providing caring and services, measuring service demand, removing obstacles to learning, and special needs of migrant youth. (SLD)

Some approaches to dealing with contemporary issues on campus include Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome awareness--safe sex parties; crime prevention--students helping students, legislation, workshops and conferences; alcohol awareness--designated driver program and starting a nonalcoholic bar; cults on campus; sexual assault--"Hours Til…

Liberals and conservatives agree that it is best if teenagers delay reproduction, but they disagree over how. Comparisons with Sweden and Great Britain suggest that America's difficulties with teen childbearing and abortion can be traced partly to combined cultural ambivalence about chastity, childbearing, and working. (SLD)

Asserts educators have argued about meaning and purpose of social studies since the field's inception in the early 1900s. Contends that reform efforts associated with the America 2000 program focus on teaching factual information from history and geography. Maintains that the proper content of social studies must be persistent and contemporary…

Outlines components of a theory of multicultural society; and argues that the critical weakness of multicultural education in Australia is that it derives from undertheorized, conceptually inadequate, and confused understandings. Current approaches fail to address fundamental issues of difference in existing social relations. (SLD)

Deliberations about social policy often center on estimates of harm or benefit generated by different interest groups. Problems in what is measured and how it is measured are illustrated by a discussion of research into sexual abuse and rape. Advocacy research is an unreliable foundation for social policy formation. (SLD)

Discusses language intolerance in the United States and its relation to the culture wars now emerging. Responses to nine questions raised by those who want English to be the official language of the United States are presented to untangle the issues and correct the misconceptions behind the question. (GR)

Addresses the issue of children's human rights in relation to the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child that seeks to give priority to children in the adoption of individual countries' polices. Focuses on U.S. policies concerning children's' rights and introduces two different views of the impact. (CMK)