In early 1972, the Pennsylvania State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights turned its attention to the growing Puerto Rican population in Philadelphia, a population estimated to be anywhere from 30,000 to 125,000. A two-day open meeting or informal hearing was held on June 6 and 7, 1972, to look at two major problem areas for…

Fifty of the most frequently used social studies textbooks in Missouri are evaluated. The focus of the textbook evaluations is the handling of racial minorities, especially the American Negro. Criteria are outlined for adequate textbook coverage of prejudice, discrimination, and minority groups in the areas of American history and government,…

This paper questions public attitudes of disparagement toward child care that is privately arranged in neighborhood homes, and cites research to show that the widespread non-use of organized facilities is based on realistic alternative patterns of day care behavior. Some determinants of day care use are discussed, and an understanding of…

This study of attitudes of elementary school teachers in the Minneapolis Public School System revealed a marked discrepancy between attitudes of successful and non-successful teachers of lower class black children. An analysis of a 186 item questionnaire showed that the effective teachers displayed empathy and commitment to teach disadvantaged…

The author has examined the prospects for successful application of career education principles to the problems of youth unemployment in the United States, the relationship of occupationally relevant content in curricula to school dropout and student alienation, the location and control of youth occupational preparation programs, and the…

This paper identifies and analyzes some of the arguments employed by those who feel that "we have done enough" for the less fortunate members of society, who wish to curtail or end Federal involvement in social change, and who have lost sight of the dual goals of individualism and equality of opportunity. These arguments fall roughly into three…

Education can help eliminate prejudice and form ethical attitudes. Unfortunately, education is not always such a positive force. Today, many majority youngsters leave our schools with excellent mathematics and reading skills, but with attitudes of racial bias and hatred that grossly contrast with democratic ideals. At the same time, we allow many…

A scale, summary sheet, and checklist provide a guide for selecting elementary social studies materials. The checklist is based on trends in social studies as found in professional literature and published social studies materials. It is appropriate for use by individual teachers, curriculum committees, or curriculum coordinators. Aimed at being a…

Studies have shown that textbooks have treated the black person as invisible or as a problem and generally have failed to note that bigotry has been a fundamental American attitude since the arrival of Columbus. One might have thought that by 1973 publishing houses would have eliminated the need for this type of criticism, but this is not the…

This report provides a general picture of the major trends that have occured in the area of nondiscrimination in employment to date and of the general line of reasoning that is being developed by the Federal Courts. Federal Nondiscrimination Regulations applying to business, 1963-1972, are listed together with 43 court decisions concerning…

The "assimilation perspective" on minority group relations in America distort empirical reality because of two hidden assumptions. First, divergence or difference is recognized at an earlier point--only to be corrected by equalization of opportunity. The second tends to view the "new world"--the assimilated--as homogeneous. The…

Do we control tests, or do these instruments of measurement control us? Standard scores, percentiles, norms, standard deviations and other elements of measurement can assist the educative process or degenerate into mechanical crutches. There is general consensus among most educators that learning is a multifactor experience involving, among other…

The first part of this document consists of a report on the role played by familiar elements of American educational finance in perpetuating widespread and systematic denials of equal educational opportunity. The partnership among local, State and Federal resources for financing public elementary and secondary education is discussed with an…

The first of the two experiments reported here was designed to test the assumption that the phenomenological feeling of success or failure can be translated into behavior. Forty-five male undergraduates at Princeton University were given a task to perform. They then received feedback that they had been either very successful, mediocre, or very…

Contrary to popular opinion, it is very difficult to find any objective evidence of culture bias that could account for social class and racial differences in performance on current standard tests of intelligence, even those like the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), which give the appearance of being highly culture-loaded. They may be…