This review brings diverse research to bear on the contention that current achievement tests may underestimate students' subject-matter knowledge and problem-solving ability because of the mismatch between the symbolic form that typical achievement tests use and the specificity of students' symbolic encoding that arises from instruction and…

Several central concerns of Canadian multiculturalism: promotion of the principles of equality, individual acceptance, and understanding and respect for diversity are quite common to the social studies area in particular. The paper examines the quest to avoid emphases on human differences and instead to stress commonalities. This rethinking of…

Test fairness or bias may be defined in many different ways, and the existence of possible bias is difficult to demonstrate. Sociolinguistic analysis may be used to check for fairness or bias in test directions, test content specifications, or test items. Four sociolinguistic principles are held to be relevant for this task: (1) pragmatics--that…

This followup study, one of a series of documents assessing the University of Western Ontario Preschool Project, examines the long range effects of the Project on the performance of children from low income families after entering the public schools. This study summarizes data accumulated by the end of the academic year 1977-78 and describes…

Because the circumstances and problems of the urban American Indian are unique and are not being met by public education and service agencies, urban Indians across the nation have joined together within their communities and taken steps to help address their special social, educational, cultural, economic, and political needs. The establishment of…

THIS 1948 LECTURE ON THE SOCIALIZATION AND MENTAL ACTIVITIES OF NEGRO AND WHITE MIDDLE- AND LOWER-CLASS CHILDREN DISCUSSES (1) THE STRUCTURE OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS AMONG MIDDLE- AND LOWER-CLASS PERSONS, (2) THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CLASS ON PROBLEM SOLVING IN STANDARDIZED MENTAL TESTS, (3) THE NATURE OF PROBLEM-SOLVING ACTIVITIES AND MENTAL…

BASED ON A COMPREHENSIVE AND ONGOING SURVEY OF ALL BRITISH CHILDREN BORN IN THE FIRST WEEK OF MARCH 1946, THIS BOOK FOLLOWS THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS OF THESE CHILDREN, FROM ALL SOCIAL BACKGROUNDS, UP TO THE "ELEVEN PLUS" SECONDARY SELECTION EXAMINATION AND THEIR PLACEMENT IN EITHER A SECONDARY MODERN OR GRAMMAR SCHOOL. PARTICULARLY…

This document comprises the final report of the Detroit Dialect Study (see also AL 001 422 and AL 001 419). In order to contrast the speech patterns of various socio-economic groups, the research design included--(1) randomly selecting approximately 700 Detroit residents of four major age groups from an enumerated population providing as few…

The Anchor Test Study provides a method for translating a pupil's score on any one of eight widely used standardized reading tests for Grades 4, 5, and 6 to a corresponding score of any of the other seven tests, as well as furnishing new nationally representative norms for each of the eight tests. In addition, the Study presents new estimates of…

Examination of 209 Israeli high school students reveals that parental values and work attitudes, parental education and place of birth, mother's work, and school track explain only small amounts of variance in adolescents' work values. Gender and racial background were found to have strong effects on work values. (BJV)

Though educationally relevant factors are the most important in explaining college destinations, socioeconomic factors still play a big role. Influence of the ascriptive factors of race, ethnicity, and sex are more mixed in their effect. The academic and socioeconomic "rich" become richer, while the academic and socioeconomic "poor" become poorer.…

Oklahoma is one of three states to offer a free prekindergarten (pre-K) program to all students in participating school districts on a voluntary basis. Fortuitous circumstances in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the state's largest school district, permitted an unusually rigorous evaluation of the pre-K program in Tulsa. Because 4-year-olds beginning pre-K and…

The indigenous peoples of Latin America live in conditions of extreme poverty. This book uses empirical data from national survey sources to determine the extent of poverty among Latin American indigenous populations; to compare indigenous and nonindigenous populations with regard to socioeconomic status, living conditions, educational attainment,…

This study examined whether context and other variables differentiated between improving and stable Louisiana schools. Participating were principals of 124 improving and 124 stable schools, with a final response rate to a mail survey of 69 percent. The School Improvement Survey, developed for this study, assessed six areas: (1) demographic and…

This paper examines inequalities in education resulting from differences in community social class, using data from a study of high school teachers' work in different communities conducted in the 1980's and repeated in the 1990's. The 1985 study of schools in upper middle class, working class, and lower class neighborhoods indicated that there…