This report examined the participation of at-risk children in preschool programs, after controlling for selected individual, family, and geographic characteristics. A multivariate statistical technique, a logistic regression, was applied to data from the 1990 Decennial Census. This allowed an analysis of the relative effects of each of the…

This study compared the concepts of oral and written language of 4-year-old, preschool children from low- and middle-class homes. Subjects were 64 children from 3 preschools serving families at poverty level, and 3 preschools serving middle-income families. Children's understanding of the function of print was measured by three tasks: recognizing…

This monograph, based on college transcripts of 10,700 students included in the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72), examines how culturally literate is the generation that is now in its thirties and what people in that generation studied that exposed them to different cultures, societies, and intellectual…

This study examined the influences of three parenting variables on children's school achievement: commitment to children's school achievement, demandingness, and responsiveness. The study also examined the influence of maternal employment and satisfaction with employment on the three parenting variables and on children's achievement.…

Focusing on the acquisition of science processes, a study was made of the relationship of acculturation and social class to cognitive development among 1,677 lower and lower middle class students enrolled in the public high schools of three rural, 11 semi-urban, and three urban communities. Acculturation was defined at the community level in terms…

This is a report on a study of the motives of southern blacks for migrating to the North during the period 1915-50. In particular, the study examined whether attitudes that existed as a result of sentimental (rather than solely economic) factors involved in movement from the South encouraged an orientation toward the northern opportunity structure…

This paper discusses the issue of pluralism and British society. The following topics are covered: (1) why it is desirable for Great Britain to be a pluralistic society; (2) how far the needs of minority communities can be accommodated without threatening British status quo; (3) what happens in other countries; and (4) what lessons can be learned…

Lower-class black street corner behavior is present in the inner city and in nonschool settings. This language and behavior is misunderstood by middle-class whites, especially teachers, to the point that effective communications are seriously hampered in urban schools. Efforts to educate minority students will fail significantly until teachers and…

In 1985 Mayor Edward Koch of New York City appointed a commission to address the concerns of Hispanics. This document is the report of that commission. It describes some of the special problems experienced by Hispanics and sets forth specific recommendations for the city to consider in order to enhance the quality of life for Hispanics. The areas…

This report is the response of New York City to the report of the Mayor's Commission on Hispanic Concerns. After reviewing the Commission's report, the city put various mechanisms in place to address the concerns and implement the recommendations needed to improve the life of Hispanic New Yorkers. An important need expressed by the Commission was…

Students' understandings of the concept of social class before and after taking the Social Science Foundation course (D101) at Great Britain's Open University were investigated in 1980. Among the students' conceptions before the course was that people are middle class or working class according to their job. Other conceptions were that social…

This study delineates the relationships between social background, classroom experience, and academic abilities. Classroom experience is mainly judged in terms of students' affective dispositions. The objective is to clarify how these dispositions are shaped by the personal and situational factors in a child's social background, and then how they,…

In two different studies the relationships between study time patterns, retrieval time patterns, and clustering were examined. In the first study middle Socioeconomic Status white students in grades 2 through 5 increased their use of the clustering strategy as a function of the organizational nature of the list. List composition facilitated…

Values about education held by private school educators tend to be those best suited to preparing their mostly middle- and upper-middle-class students for managerial and professional careers. Social scientists have hypothesized that schools readying students for social leadership will stress internalized student behavior norms instead of obedience…

The larger study of which this research is a part examines the relationship between social scientists and practitioners in the development and dissemination of knowledge through higher education. In this publication the term "cognitive development" is used to refer to the creation and dissemination of knowledge in a field. The concept of the…