Qualitative approaches in educational research are challenging traditional postivistic, psychometric paradigms by emphasizing: (1) close contact over detachment; (2) multiple techniques in obtaining data; (3) bottom-up inductive frameworks; and (4) phenomenological approaches. Section 1, "Ethnographic Investigations into High Schools," includes "Dynamics of a Multiethnic School" (Maryann Semons) and "What Can Traditional High School Dropouts Tell Us about Alternative Education" (Daniel Kaczynski). Section 2, "Understanding and Creating Effective Schools," includes "A Systems Approach to School Reform" (Norman Newberg) and "Exceeding Expectations: Activities and Attitudes in an Inner City School with Large Achievement Gains" (John Crawford and Lola Agaard). Section 3, "Technology, Science and Mathematics for Underrepresented Populations" includes "Technology and Mainstreamed Students with Physical Disabilities" (Marcia Scherer). Section 4, "Achievement and Cultural Identity," includes "Breaking the Silence: Race and the Educational Experiences of Asian-American College Students" (Keith Osajima) and "Defining and Managing Stress in Pluralistic Communities" (Jerri Willet). Section 5, "Literacy at Home and School," includes "Ho-oulu I Ka Heluhelu: Fitting Book Reading into the Lives of Hawaiian Children" (Alice Kawakami); "Parental Involvement in Mainstream Schools" (Patricia Edwards and Georgia Garcia); and "Gaining and Retaining Access to Literacy in African-American Youth and Children" (Vivian Gadsden). Section 6, "Effective Teachers and Pedagogy for African-American Students," includes "Cultural Politics in Teacher Education" (Peter Murrell); "Returning to the Source: Implications for Educating Teachers Black Students" (Gloria Ladson-Billings); "Unfinished Business: Black Students' Alienation and Black Teacher's Pedagogy" (Joyce King); and "'Just Got to Find a Way': Case Studies of the Lives and Practice of Exemplary Black High School Teachers" (Michele Foster). Each chapter includes multiple references. (TEJ)