Minority children are often thought to lack an achievement orientation. This paper discusses the home and community contexts of Latina/o immigrant children in a low-income community in Southern California, to demonstrate how sociocultural factors interact to produce motivation. Findings reveal that even among demographically similar families, a…

To examine how the school districts profiled in "Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts That Value Arts Education" are responding to the demands of how to provide high quality public education to all students throughout the country and whether their communities continue to support arts education, the Arts Education Partnership…

This paper discusses the planning processes and plans of school principals in Israel. It describes how educational planning processes often expose educators to a dilemma: public expectations pressure principals to create quick solutions for complicated educational issues, whereas their professional obligation is to produce plans that will address…

Authors examine the ideological convictions of working class youth as they face the prospect of upward social mobility. (RK)

A discussion of the shift of the focus of minority group action from assimilation on equal terms with individual majority group members to ethnic identity and redistribution of power among ethnically-based communities. (JM)

Nine locally initiated projects designed to improve the connections for problem solving between urban schools and the community were examined. Results showed that the desired school/community connections were difficult to achieve and seemed fragile and vulnerable. A new approach to school reform in urban schools is suggested. (AOS)

Discusses aspects of literacy education: why it is needed; how it affects the individual, the family, the community, and society; ill effects and abuses of literacy; why literacy education is needed now; and the need for mass literacy campaigns. (CT)

In British Columbia, the educational system was dramatically overhauled between 1900 and 1929, often in accordance with social reformers' suggestions. This paper examines one strand of that school reform as education's societal relationships changed and adapted with the transition to a maturing urban industrial province. (Author/SJL)

The author argues that direct citizen participation cannot influence educational policy or restore the power of lay boards in public education. Asserting that more can be accomplished by a technically trained organization working within the bureaucracy, he cites the accomplishments of the Education Clearinghouse, a nonprofit group of…

If participation does not include an openness to the issues that are of real concern to the community and an opportunity to influence policy relating to those issues, it becomes an empty public relations gesture fostering apathy, disinterest, resistance, or counter-organization. (MB)

Data from a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth subsample (aged 18-21 in the first survey year) indicate that criminal involvement is related positively to time out of the labor force and negatively to workers' expectations of job duration and to student status. Results suggest that the stability of good jobs or academic involvement inhibits…

Traces the interrelations between neighborhood sociocultural factors and adolescents' networks, leisure preferences, and school behavior. The overall conclusion is that both the background variables and most of the network indices correlate with the outcome variables. Results show that time spent with peers indulging in passive leisure consumption…

This article summarizes methods and findings from a community diagnosis designed to identify cognitive, affective, and cultural variables that seem to be associated with teen pregnancy. On the basis of information collected, critical elements for an intervention strategy are proposed. (IAH)