Extensive interviews of students were conducted by Commission staff from mid-1968 through early 1969 with the purpose of examining the attitudes and perceptions of students concerning the education they were receiving. Among the issues addressed by the students were the following: how the schools can respond constructively to the needs and…

The effect of social class on progress of the individual student through school is examined in this research report. Based upon data from a range of studies, this investigation assesses the magnitude of the effects of class origins, scholastic ability, and a select number of other variables on (1) curriculum location, (2) participation in…

This investigation studied children of different races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and sexes, and attempted to identify the components by which they arrive at their self-evaluation. The study used a pre-tested 30 item self-esteem measure. The study also used a test anxiety scale, an achievement orientation scale, and an arbitration scale. The…

The Swedish address system is in a state of rapid change. Consequently, Swedes are now more than ever sensitive to the seeming lack of generally accepted rules of usage. This paper attempts to codify the rules for usage of the personal pronouns "du" and "ni." In so doing, it finds that "du" may be used to express…

Assuming that a period of racial disharmony is potentially indicative of increasing salience of racial categories for social life, the issue of whether a period of racial discord is indicative of (1) a point of rapid transition in an overall trend of decreasing salience of racial categories, or (2) preliminary evidence of a general trend of the…

The major issue investigated in this paper is whether or not any change appears over a five-year peiod in the differences in performances between minority and non-minority students in that district. Since the relative performance advantage of non-minority students is frequently ascribed to their better backgrounds, socio-economic factors are held…

Preferences for 92 values, obtained from a survey of cross-cultural studies of values, were obtained from two separate and geographically distant sets of groups consisting of black and white males and females of lower- and middle-Class status. The middle-class black population was of insufficient size to include, however. Value preferences were…

The purposes of this study were to determine: (1) if differences existed in the self-concept among Negro, Anglo, and Spanish American students; and (2) the extent to which these differences were influenced by ethnic group membership, socioeconomic position, sex, or the interaction among these variables. This study was carried out in a New Mexico…

The aim of this research was to determine the relative importance of certain variables for different social classes in the formation of positive attitudes toward school and school work. In the first study, complete data were obtained from 884 third-year junior school pupils in 28 schools located throughout England. Attitude toward school was…

We need to find out the extent to which individual differences, social class differences and race differences in rates of cognitive development, and differential patterns of relative strength and weakness are attributable to genetically conditioned biological growth factors. The answers to this question might imply differences in our approach to…

This study investigates the development of multiplicative classification skills in lower class black and middle class white children on tasks which contain either three-dimensional objects or two-dimensional pictorial representations of the same objects. Multiplicative classification refers to the simultaneous classification of objects into two or…

The usefulness of the social class construct for life-cycle research is discussed in this paper. Social class is defined as used in the paper, and as it is generally used by students of the human life cycle. It is further evaluated as a descriptor, and a predictor of behaviors and attitudes. The construct seems to be most useful in studies of…

There are seven major sets of differences between young children of different economic backgrounds. The middle class child, compared to the lower class child, generally exhibits: (1) better language comprehension and expression, (2) richer schema development, involving mental preparation for the unusual, (3) stronger attachment to the mother,…

Five papers and an introduction are included in the report of the proceedings of the second invitational conference on school needs of Mexican American youth. Titles of the papers are "Meeting Guidance Needs of Mexican American Youth -- An Introduction,""The Role of the Principal in Establishing a Guidance Program in a Mexican American…

Previous studies have demonstrated that certain differences in speech behavior can be related to the social characteristics of speakers. However, these studies have not explicitly examined the effect of level of linguistic analysis on correlations observed between language variables and status variables. Three levels of analysis of a linguistic…