NIUSI

part of the Education Reform Networks

Inquiry on School & Schooling

• "Challenge Us; I Think We're Ready": Establishing a Multicultural Course of Study
  Discusses how students can relate to Mark Mathabane's autobiographical novel "Kaffir Boy"--his questioning why he must attend school, his open defiance of his father, and his struggle to resist peer pressure. Examines where an all-white high-school faculty started in terms of developing a multicultural literature program, where they have been, and where they see the program in the near future.
• "I Want My Teachers To Like Me": Multiculturalism and School Dropout Rates among Mexican Americans
  Investigated Mexican American high school students' perceptions of multiculturalism, noting whether perceptions affected academic achievement, intention to graduate, and postsecondary educational aspirations. Surveyed, interviewed, and observed students and staff at schools with low and high Hispanic dropout rates.
• "If There Is a Better Intercultural Plan in Any School System in America, I Do Not Know Where It Is": The San Diego City Schools' Intercultural Education Program, 1946-1949
  Explores the history of the San Diego City Schools' attempts at intercultural reform after World War II, noting educators' response to specific student and community needs in the wake of racial, ethnic, and religious tensions. The 3-year intercultural program was one of the first of its kind in California and became a model for other cities to follow.
• A new high school design focused on student performance.
  Performance-driven schools create a results-oriented culture, strongly support staff development, build community services and supports for students, help parents support their children's academic progress and develop an inclusive school leadership style. NASSP Bulletin, Vol.
• A Review of Community College Curriculum Trends. ERIC Digest
  Approximately 50 percent of all students who enter postsecondary education enroll in community colleges. Consequently, reviewing the characteristics of the community college curriculum is paramount to understanding the role these institutions play in shaping students' trajectories.
• A Study of the Gender Role Orientations of Beginning Counselors
  Counseling literature and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs' (1994) accreditation standards advocate gender-sensitive counseling practices. However, the effects of socialization processes on counselor education students concerning gender role orientation may interfere with that mandate.
• A Systematic Examination of School Improvement Activities That Include Special Education.
  Includes a reliable and valid method to (a) systematically describe and assess the school improvement process and (b) examine its relationship to special education by including in the investigation programs for students with emotional disturbance.
• Across-Program Collaboration to Support Students With and Without Disabilities in a General Education Classroom
  We conducted a program evaluation of a multi-component intervention using general education/special education collaborative teaming to increase the academic achievement and social participation of students with and without disabilities.
• An Examination of Gender Differences among Teachers in Jamaican Schools
  Examines the history of education in Jamaica, then discusses why there is an absence of male teachers in younger grades. Interviews with teachers and principals from six primary and elementary schools indicate that, similar to educational staff in North America, respondents have stereotyped attitudes regarding the teaching of young children being the realm of women.
• An Oral Versus a Standard Administration of a Large-Scale Mathematics Test
  Students in Grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 (N=1,343) took part in a study to determine whether students with learning disabilities (LD) would benefit from having mathematics test items read aloud. Two 30-item alternate forms of a large-scale multiple-choice mathematics test were administered.
• Art-Centered Approach to Diversity Education in Teaching and Learning
  Describes the advantages of an art-centered approach to diversity education in teaching and learning, which provides students with both a window into others' reality and a mirror that reflects their own cultural identity and community. Explains how to craft an art-centered approach to diversity education, offering examples of instructional activities and strategies and sample ethnographic research projects.
• Beyond Classroom-Based Early Field Experiences: Understanding an "Educative Practicum" in an Urban School and Community
  Examined the experiences of preservice teachers in an urban school and community-based early field experience (integrated with foundations of education and general methods courses). Data from observations, interviews, reflective writings, and focus groups highlighted five categories of student experience: deepening multicultural, eye-opening and transformational, masked multicultural, partially miseducative, and escaping experiences.
• Beyond the Rhetoric: Moving from Exclusion, Reaching for Inclusion in Canadian Schools
  A 3-year study in Toronto (Ontario) schools examined educational practices that engender exclusion or inclusion, especially of racially marginalized groups. Findings suggest that an inclusive learning environment introduces topics of race, critically examines cultural stereotypes, has high expectations for minority students, encourages cultural-identity groups, and has equitable school hiring practices.
• Black English in a Place Called Waterloo
  For many black students, the school language differs significantly from the home language, but preservice education rarely examines this issue. This article examines implications for teaching children who use two different forms of language to navigate the demands of their contrasting sociolinguistic speech communities, discussing: how teacher attitudes and knowledge affect practice; dual language demands; ebonics; and language as power.
• Building Stronger School Counseling Programs: Bringing Futuristic Approaches into the Present
  This publication brings together authors from a variety of fields to speculate about the future of counseling. Some believe that change in the future will be incremental and of a short-term nature, resolving problems as they arise.
• Changing Views about International Activities in American Teacher Education Programs
  This paper provides a historical overview of international education trends in U.S. colleges, including teacher education programs, comparing current research with data from the 1970s.
• Charting the Development of Multi-Ethnic Britain
  Provides a broad history of the contribution of people of Asian origin, particularly Indian origin, to the development of the United Kingdom, discussing the racial bias they have historically faced in the country's educational, social, and employment systems. A timeline of the Indian presence in Great Britain from 1688-1999 is presented.
• Cognition and policy implementation: District policy-makers and the reform of mathematics education.
  Analysis of ideas about instruction that district leaders construct from the mathematics reform to identify dominant patterns in their understandings. Focuses on the forms of the mathematics reforms rather than epistemological and pedagogical functions.
• Collaborative action research projects: Enhancing teacher development in professional developmnet schools
  Investigated how collaborative action research projects affected five pre-service teachers' professional development while working with on-site teacher educators within a Professional Development School. Data from interviews, conferences, journals, action research, student writings, and field notes indicated that these experiences helped pre-service teachers gain valuable insights about self as teacher, students, curriculum, teaching, and teacher roles and responsibilities.
• Creating a Culturally Responsive Learning Environment for African American Students
  Explores how African American and white college students and faculty can develop strong identities and healthy interpersonal relationships. Encourages faculty to engage students in dialogue about multicultural issues and adapt teaching practices to create a culturally responsive learning environment for students and faculty.
• Current Challenges of International Education. ERIC Digest
  The tragedies of September 11, 2001 have focused new attention on international education offered by U.S. postsecondary institutions.
• Data mining with a mission.
  Article discusses issues concerning data-driven decision making in the school setting. A key aspect of data-driven decision making involves looking at information over an extended period of time.
• Deconstructing the Myths: A Research Agenda for American Indian Education (Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 14-15, 2000)
  This report outlines a comprehensive research agenda for Indian education from the Native perspective. It resulted from a meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in April 2000, planned by a national steering committee of Indian education researchers, administrators, and association executives.
• Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking. .
  Restores some clarity to the concept of reflection and what it means to think, by going back to the roots of reflection in the work of John Dewey.
• Developing a Commitment to Multicultural Education
  Investigated the kinds of lived experiences contributing to teachers' commitment to multicultural education and processes by which teachers became committed. Interviews and surveys involving K-12 and college teachers indicated that teachers developed commitment through various developmental life experiences.
• Distircts on the move:Unified student service in Boston Public schools building a continuum of services through standard-based reform
  Real change in schools, and students’ learning, requires coordinated effort. While each school must make its own journey of change, these journeys must be supported and facilitated by districts and communities.
• District context and Comer schools: How school districts manage school reform.
  Two districts' capacities were examined regarding their role in implementing the Comer School Development Program. Case study analyses revealed that school districts abandoned systemic reform because their efforts were undermined by accountability policies.
• Education: A Guide to Reference and Information Sources. Second Edition. Reference Sources in the Social Sciences Series
  The purpose of this guide is to provide information about the key reference and information resources in the field of education. Sources include items published from 1990 through 1998, with selective inclusion of significant or unique works published prior to 1990.
• Educators of Asian Bilingual Students: Pedagogical Techniques, Strategies and Challenges
  Explored the challenges and teaching strategies of 133 Asian bilingual educators using a detailed questionnaire developed specifically for the purposes of the investigation. Participants were asked to rate how important specific practices, strategies, and challenges were in their teaching of Asian bilingual students.
• Effective Literacy Practices and Challenging Curriculum for At-Risk Learners: Great Expectations.
  Described a research project carried out in a school serving students of diverse linguistic, cultural, and economic backgrounds-a population often the least well served by the educational system.
• Electives: Once More to the Defense
  Presents two educators' views on elective courses. Argues that single-subject high school English courses teach the same skills that are taught in traditional English courses, offer students the opportunity to choose, can meet students' particular interest or needs, and should fulfill an English requirement.
• Essentializing Dilemma and Multiculturalist Pedagogy: An Ethnographic Study of Japanese Children in a U.S. School
  Examined Japanese children's experiences at a U.S. elementary school, noting their teachers' pedagogical responses.
• Ethnicity and Comparative Youth Disaffection in Multicultural Contexts: Some Multiracial Experiences of Education in Thanet and Lille
  Explored youth disaffection, focusing on K-12 schools in England and France. Data from student interviews, staff interviews, and classroom observations indicated that educational inclusion in the two countries was not meeting the educational needs of disaffected youth.
• Experiences and Beliefs as Predictors of Ethnic Identity and Intergroup Relations
  Factors affecting ethnic identity and other group orientation were assessed in 115 college students from 5 ethnic groups. Ethnic group self-identification, negative and positive interracial experiences, perceptions of racial bias, social support, just-world beliefs, and psychological distress were each associated with various components of ethnic identity and are discussed within a counseling perspective.
• Exploring Culture, Language and the Perception of the Nature of Science
  Explores the views some First Nations (Cree) and Euro-Canadian grade 7-level students in Manitoba have about the nature of science. Uses both qualitative and quantitative instruments to explore student views.
• Exploring the Self-Perceived Multicultural Counseling Competence of Elementary School Counselors
  Counselors (N=76) from an elementary school completed the Multicultural Counseling Competence and Training Survey to assess their perceptions of multicultural competence. The results suggest they perceived themselves to be largely multiculturally competent, except in areas of racial identity development.
• Extending the Possibilities of Multicultural Professional Development in Public Schools
  A 3-year qualitative study documented and critiqued a city school system's efforts to enlighten faculty and staff through multicultural professional development. Examples from the study show how the district attempted to introduce a more inclusive schooling approach and extend the virtues of multicultural professional development.
• Eyes on Education: A Proposal for East Side Union High Schools.
  This paper presents information from surveys of 1,028 diverse high school students in one California district about inequalities they experienced and their thoughts regarding such issues. While 83 percent of students are students of color, 38 percent of teachers are teachers of color.
• Finding Yourself in Reading and Writing: Cultural Inclusion in the Classroom
  Proposes that to enable students to move along the literacy continuum, the pre-service teacher must become mindful of the multiple cultures and perspectives shaping the classroom. Discusses how a group of university students examined texts of the past and present and then worked to develop a critical awareness of teaching approaches and literacy practices congruent with a culturally inclusive classroom.
• Foundations for Success: Case studies of how urban school systems improve student achievement.
  Reports findings from case studies on four urban school districts that demonstrated improvement in student achievement and in narrowing the achievement gap between minorities and whites at a faster rate than two anonymous comparison districts.
• Give Us a Taste of Your Quality! A Report from the Heartland on the Role of the Arts in Multicultural Settings
  Discusses the role of the arts in multicultural education, explaining how diverse students react to and need support in the arts in order to succeed. Focuses on the efforts of urban elementary and secondary schools in Madison, Wisconsin.
• Good News and Bad News: A Comparison of Teacher Educators' and Preservice Teachers' Beliefs about Diversity Issues
  This study examined teacher educators' and student teachers' beliefs about, attitudes toward, and sensitivity regarding cultural diversity and other diversity issues. The Beliefs about Diversity Scale was used to assess respondents' beliefs about race, gender, social class, ability, language/immigration, sexual orientation, and multicultural education.
• Hispanic Education in the United States: Raices y Alas. Critical Issues of Contemporary American Education
  This book portrays what works in creating better educational opportunities and effective school reform for Hispanic Americans, offering a reflection on the bicultural experience of minority groups in U.S. schools and showing how and why educational reforms must seek to build upon rather than downplay the native culture and language of minority students.
• Identifying the Prospective Multicultural Educator: Three Signposts, Three Portraits
  Investigates how prospective teachers respond to social differences they encounter in educational discourse and public schools, identifying three signposts indicative of prospective multicultural educators (desiring change because of identifying with educational inequality, valuing critical pedagogy and multicultural social reconstructivist education, and wanting to understand educational inequality and its causes). Presents data from observations and interviews with three teacher candidates.
• Inquiry at the crossroads of policy and learning: A study of a district–wide literacy initiative.
  Presents result of 100 classroom observations and interviews with teachers, district administrators and staff developers on the implementation of the Balanced Literacy Program in NY District #2; focus was the relationship between policy and practice.
• Issues in Social Studies: Voices from the Classroom
  This collection of essays, from Houston area educators, investigates and analyzes the state of social education, offering a critical and transformative perspective.
• Learning and Not Learning English: Latino Students in American Schools. Multicultural Education Series
  This book examines the experiences of four Mexican children in American middle schools struggling to learn English. It discusses policy and instructional dilemmas surrounding English language education for immigrant children.
• Learning Styles, Culture and Inclusive Instruction in the Multicultural Classroom: A Business and Management Perspective
  Examines the learning style profile exhibited by students in a multicultural class of international business management and how cultural conditioning is reflected in the learning style preferences of students. Explains the use of the Index of Learning Styles and discusses implications for the design of business management curriculum.
• Learning to change: Teaching beyond subjects and standards.
  Examines the realities of educational change from the frontline perspective of reform-minded teachers. It charts the perceptions and experiences of twenty-nine teachers in grades 7 and 8 from four school districts.
• Linking Diversity and Educational Purpose: How Diversity Affects the Classroom Environment and Student Development
  This study examined the impact of diversity on students' self-perceived improvement in the abilities necessary to contribute positively to a pluralistic democracy. It noted how such diversity-related campus activities as exposure to multicultural curricula and opportunities to study and interact with diverse peers affected student development.
• Living (and Teaching) in an Unjust World: New Perspectives on Multicultural Education
  This collection of essays is a response to educators who limit multicultural education to "culture of the quarter" or "country of the week." The essays examine the issues of multicultural education deeply, exploring the just and unjust issues of schooling, the need to move beyond teaching about culture to facilitating self discovery, and the way classrooms mirror larger society.
• Local theories of teacher change: The pedagogy of district policies and programs.
  Examines district officials' theories about teacher learning and change, identifying and elaborating three perspectives – behaviorist, situated, and cognitive – based on a study of nine school districts. The behaviorist perspective on teacher learning dominated among the district officials in the study.
• Multicultural Content and Class Participation: Do Students Self-Censor?
  Through survey and focus group data, examined student discomfort in social work courses, reasons for self-censorship, and solutions to self-censorship. Found that general classroom factors (being too shy or being unprepared), not political correctness, were more likely to be reasons for self-censorship.
• Multicultural Education in the U.S.: A Guide to Policies and Programs in the 50 States
  This book compiles information to investigate the presence and structure of multicultural education programs throughout the United States.
• Multicultural Issues in the Advertising Curriculum
  Argues that advertising students should understand ethnic markets. Finds that only 15% of surveyed advertising professors said their departments offer courses focused exclusively on multicultural issues, only 13% said students were required to take courses relevant to ethnic advertising outside of their department, and over half spent three hours or less on multicultural components in their general advertising courses.
• Multicultural Teacher Education for the 21st Century
  Discusses multicultural preservice teacher education, recommending that preservice programs be more deliberate about preparing white Americans for teaching diverse students because of the increasing division between white teachers and minority students. The paper examines preservice teachers' fear of diversity and resistance to dealing with race and racism, proposing a two-part program for preparing teachers to work with diverse students.
• Multicultural Teacher Preparation: Establishing Safe Environments for Discussion of Diversity Issues
  Describes a project within an early childhood multicultural teacher education program that examined what makes educational environments conducive to discussing culturally sensitive issues. Diverse students participated in two discussions, created guidelines, and completed interviews and questionnaires.
• Multicultural Transformations through LATTICE: An Evaluation of a Model of Professional Development for Teachers
  This paper describes a 5-year inservice teacher professional development project to improve teachers' abilities to work in diverse settings, Linking All Types of Teachers with Intercultural Education (LATTICE). LATTICE involved K-12 public school teachers in Michigan and international graduate students and internationally oriented faculty at a large state university.
• No Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow
  By 1993, New York City's multicultural and innovative Children of the Rainbow curriculum had been discontinued and the education chancellor fired. This article examines the curriculum's development and implementation and the controversies surrounding it.
• On Inclusion and the Other Kids:Here's What Research Shows so Far About Inclusion's Effect on Nondisabled Students.
  Inclusion is receiving lots of attention, both in school districts across the country and in the popular media. Most of that attention is focused on how inclusion affects the students with disabilities.
• Organizational Learning and School Change
  This article deals with the organizational learning and institutional changes. Authors studied the nature of organizational learning and the leadership practices in Australian high schools.
• Outcomes for Students With Learning Disabilities in Inclusive and Pullout Programs
  This article investigated the relationship between placement in inclusive and pullout special education programs for students with learning disabilities in the United States. Results indicated thaat the two programs diffiered signifcantly.
• Perceptions of Teachers, Administrators, and Community Members about Returning to a Neighborhood School Structure
  This study investigated the perceptions of selected stakeholders about the impact of returning to a district-wide neighborhood school structure after having been under a federal desegregation mandate (involving busing) since the 1970s. It focuses on data from interviews with African American and white elementary school teachers.
• Pharmaceutical Education in the South African Multicultural Society
  Describes the educational quality assurance program implemented in South Africa in 1995 and its effects on pharmacy education, including development of outcomes-based competency standards for entry-level pharmacists.
• Preservice Teachers and Teacher Educators: Are They Sensitive about Cultural Diversity Issues
  This study assessed the beliefs about and sensitivity toward cultural diversity issues of teacher educators and preservice teachers. A group of 78 predominantly white preservice teachers and 45 predominantly white teacher educators completed the Beliefs About Diversity Scale, which assessed beliefs about race, gender, social class, ability, language/immigration, sexual orientation, and multicultural education.
• Problem-based learning: what and how do students learn?
  Provides an exploration of the goals of PBL and discusses the nature of learning in PBL and examines the empirical evidence supporting it.
• Proceedings of the Midwest Philosophy of Education Society, 1999-2000
  This proceedings of the Midwest Philosophy of Education Society contain two presidential addresses: "Separating School and State: An Analytical Polemic" (D. G.
• Professional development school trade-offs in teacher preparation and renewal
  Examined the preparation of student teachers at four Professional Development Schools (PDSs) longitudinally, comparing their experiences with those of traditional student teachers. Data from meetings with administrators; site visits; document analysis; graduation and professional status information; student teacher surveys; and graduate surveys indicated that students appreciated PDSs' camaraderie, support, collaboration, and effectiveness.
• Professional development schools provide effective theory and practice
  A description of an innovative Professional Development School program initiated by a Midwestern university is described. Successful components of this model are explained.
• Public high school dropouts and completers from the common core of data: School Year 2000-01.
  Presents the number and percentage of students dropping out of and completing public school (among states that reported dropouts) for the 2000–01 school year.
• Questionnaire Surveys: Four Survey Instruments in Educational Research
  This paper presents four questionnaire surveys administered in educational research. Each of the questionnaires is followed by a brief research report with an abstract and summary statistics.
• Reconceptualizing the visual in narrative inquiry into teaching.
  Reports on a study that attempts to encourage teachers to use a visual and verbal approach to storytelling as a method of critical reflection.
• Revista de Investigacion Educativa, 2000 (Journal of Educational Research, 2000)
  Articles in this volume focus on the following: teacher evaluation and quality management in education; steps toward a comprehensive and systematic staff evaluation; opinions of university students on teaching methods at science faculties; design of a scale to assess the ability to jump for the use in elementary school physical education; effects of age and gender differences in student-teacher relationships in an interactive cognitive-behavioral study designed to improve self-esteem; evaluation of a counseling program of prisoners for the reintegration into the workforce; statistical models to establish determining factors for choosing a university career and performance during the first year of teacher training; self-concept, self-esteem, and academic performance of students during the 4th year of Obligatory Secondary Education (Educacion Secundaria Educativo--E.S.O.); initial training of Secondary Education teachers. Current situation and outlook; methodology for teaching mathematics through problem solving: An evaluative study; and analysis and validation of a scale for measuring explorative behavior; evaluation of educational programs; evaluation of social programs; design and sub-designs in program evaluation; validity in program evaluation; data analysis in the evaluation of educational programs; optimizing the assessment of program evaluation; survey sampling and its problems in institutional program evaluations; evaluation and improvement of teaching at the university; evaluation of teaching by students within the National Plan of Evaluation of the Quality of the Universities; construction of an assessment instrument; evaluations of university training programs in a European and American framework; new trends in the evaluation of multicultural education programs; evaluation of computerized programs; evaluation of professional and continued education; evaluation of programs for the education of highly gifted students; evaluation of programs for high ability students; evaluation of special education programs for children with mental disorders; evaluation of programs focusing on children with disabilities.
• Rolling Up Our Sleeves in Social Justice Research: A Collaborative Study of School-Based Coalitions
  This study examined the shared experiences of student and teacher activists in light of current theoretical and political contexts of interest to social justice activists. The study involved collaborative in-depth interviews with and observations of seven student and four teacher activists in Alberta, Canada.
• Salary-Trend Study of Faculty in Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies for the Years 1997-98 and 2000-01
  This report is part of an annual national survey that examines salaries of full-time teaching faculty in 54 selected disciplines. Data for the study as a whole were collected from 305 public and 403 private institutions for the baseline year of 1997-1998 and the trend year of 1999-2000.
• Science standards: What district policy-makers make of the hoopla.
  Explores districts' response to state science standards. Adopting a cognitive perspective on the implementation process, the authors examine the ideas about science education that district policy makers construct from science standards.
• Section 169 Profile
  The profile presents current and /or historical information for all 50 states, the district of Columbia and Puerto Rico, which are eligible to receive IDEA Part B, Section 619 funds.
• Site-level predictors of children’s school and social competence in the Chicago Child–Parent Centers.
  Examined the influence of individual and site-level factors from the Chicago Child–Parent Centers (CPC) early educational program on four competence outcomes for 1539 minority youth in the Chicago Longitudinal Study.
• Social, Political, Educational, Linguistic and Cultural (Dis-)Incentives for Languages Education in Australia
  Examines the extent to which the shifting ideological discourse on multiculturalism in Australia affects the personal attitudes and perspectives of bilingual and bicultural Australian born and educated parents of Hellenic background with regard to the education of their children. (Author/VWL).
• Special Education Programs for Youth with Disabilities in Juvenile Corrections.
  Special education services are available to youth with disabilities in many juvenile correctional facilities in the United States. However in recent years, parents and advocates have challenged the adequacy of services in many states.
• State Variation in Gender Disproportionality in Special Education.
  Gender disproportionality in special education has been apparent for many years, reflected in male-to-female ratios that range from about 1.5:1 to 3.5:1. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of disproportionate representation for the disability conditions of learning disability (LD), serious emotional disturbance (SED), and mental retardation (MR) at the state, regional, and national levels.
• Student Experiences with Multicultural and Diversity Education
  Investigates student learning experiences in courses with multicultural and diversity content and finds that community college students desire this kind of course content. Students want to learn more about diversity than what frequently is associated with "culture." Information concerning gender, sexual orientation, ageism, classism, and disabilities should be infused into college curricula.
• Student Perceptions of Teacher Ethnic Bias: Implications for Teacher Preparation and Staff Development
  This study investigated the perceptions of 2,409 7th-12th graders regarding teacher ethnic bias. Participants comprised three groups: school dropouts, students at risk of dropping out, and a control group of students.
• Student Voices across the Spectrum: The Educational Integration Initiatives Project
  The Educational Integration Initiatives Project (EIIP) was a multidisciplinary study designed to explore the complexities of the interaction of race and education. The EIIP also evaluated how the environment in which students are educated affects their educational performance and personal development.
• Surveying the Landscape: Perceptions of Multicultural Support Services and Racial Climate at a Predominantly White University
  Examined how white and minority students at a predominantly white college perceived racial climate, student support services, multicultural courses, and attitudes toward cultural diversity on campus. Surveys indicated that white and minority students' perceptions varied, and campus support services were inadequate for creating an environment where minority students could have as positive an experience as white students.
• Teacher Effectiveness and Computer Assessment of Reading: Relating Value Added and Learning Information System Data
  The Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) has for several years used the largest longitudinally merged database of student achievement data in the USA. to generate estimates of school system, school, and teacher effects on indicators of student learning in a number of subjects, including reading comprehension.
• Teacher-Researchers Entering into the World of Limited-English-Proficiency (LEP) Students: Three Case Studies
  Examines three white teacher researchers' classroom inquiries on their limited English proficiency students. Teachers were investigating students' way of perceiving, learning, and using their native and second language in different circumstances.
• Teachers' Views of the Nature of Multicultural Literacy and Implications for Preservice Teacher Preparation
  Describes a study to investigate teachers' views of multicultural literacy and how it relates to teacher preparation. Analyzes data from three focus groups.
• Teaching and Learning with the Seventh Generation: The "Inward Bound" Experience
  Pre-health freshmen from a New York university worked at a traditional Mohawk community in return for lessons in Iroquois spirituality, healing, and ecology. Reciprocity between community members and students alleviated problems related to appropriation of Native American traditions and "great white hope" philanthropy, and deepened students' recognition of compassion and understanding of healing.
• Telling Their Side of the Story: African-American Students' Perceptions of Culturally Relevant Teaching
  Examined African American elementary school students' interpretations of culturally relevant teachers within urban contexts. Student responses indicated that culturally relevant teaching strategies had a positive effect on student effort and engagement in class content.
• The Benefits of Dialogue Journals: What Prospective Teachers Say
  Investigated preservice teachers' perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks to using dialogue journals in a multicultural teacher education course. Students perceived many benefits related to facilitation of learning, self-reflection, self-understanding, procedural convenience, expression of ideas, feedback, and teacher student relationships.
• The Blackboard Jungle: Critically Interrogating Hollywood's Vision of the Urban Classroom
  Investigated graduate preservice teachers' perceptions of urban students and schools, exploring how they arrived at these perceptions through personal experiences/contacts and other means. Students completed surveys about their image of urban schools and students and examined commercial Hollywood films, discussing their role in shaping perceptions.
• The Counselor as a Member of a Culturally Proficient School Leadership Team
  The paradigm presented in this chapter is predicated on certain assumptions about the future of schools and schooling as well as the role of the school counselor. These assumptions include: the cultural and demographic profile of school counselors will continue to be different from students; the counselor will have an ever-present role on school leadership teams; although the traditional high school will continue, alternative programs will proliferate; and the counselor will have career, personal, and civic functions, and the cultural proficiency model will be inextricably linked with these functions.
• The district's role in building capacity: Four strategies. Policy Brief.
  Explores the promises and challenges of four major capacity-building strategies that researchers at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education observed in twenty-two districts in California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas over a two-year period.
• The Effects of Modified School Calendars on Student Achievement and on School and Community Attitudes
  This review synthesizes studies of the effects of modifying the academic calendar in Grades K-12 to do away with the long summer break while not increasing the length of the school year. The synthesis indicated that the quality of evidence on modified calendars is poor.
• The Impact of a Standards Guided Equity and Problem Solving Institute on Participating Science Teachers and Their Students
  This study examined the effect of a teacher enhancement project combining training on the National Science Education Standards, problem solving and equity education on middle school science teachers' attitudes and practices and, in turn, the attitudes of their students.
• The Impact of an International Cultural Experience on Previously Held Stereotypes by American Student Nurses
  Examined stereotypes held by U.S. student nurses before and after participating in an educational experience in Russia.
• The impact of organization on the performance of nine school systems: Lessons for California.
  Study of nine school districts with different models of management.Three are top-down (U-Form); three are totally decentralized (all Catholic, known as H-form); and three are "in-between" (M-form). Concludes that M-form school districts (Seattle, Edmonton, and Houston) have better student achievement.
• The impact of professional development schools on the education of urban students
  Professional development schools (PDSs) were originated a decade ago to provide a new model for teacher education that enables graduate students to have meaningful classroom experiences while they earn their degree. Over 1,000 PDSs exist in nearly every state, operating as partnerships between universities and public schools; most belong to one of many national or regional networks.
• The impact of standard based reform in Duval County, Florida: 1999-2002.
  Authors studied elementary and middle school reading, writing and mathematics results from the spring of 1999 to the spring of 2002 on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in Duval County, relative to seven other counties in Florida. Results indicate positive effects in Duval County elementary schools, yet indistinguishing differences or negative effects in middle schools.
• The Influence of Sociodemographics and Gender on the Disproportionate Identification of Minority Students as Having Learning Disabilities.
  Investigates the influence of sociodemographics and gender on the disproportionate identification of minority students having learning disabilities (LD) in the United States. Association between ethnicity and gender; Implication of the logistic regression model; Illustration on how the likelihood of identifying LD changes.
• The Rise and Fall of Diversity Training
  The effectiveness of diversity training in eliminating racial stereotypes in the workplace and modifying employees' negative attitudes toward diversity was examined in a study conducted at a private nonprofit college in the San Francisco Bay area.
• The Role of Critical Multicultural Education and Feminist Critical Thought in Teacher Education: Putting Theory Into Practice
  Identifies current problems in teacher education, recognizing larger social dilemmas and the need for change; discussing the need to acknowledge one's perpetuation of social problems; and examining how to transform schooling through a major shift in critical reflection on social issues, noting teachers' role in achieving educational and social reform by integrating critical multiculturalism, critical feminism, and ethics. (SM).
• The role of the district: Professional learning and district reform.
  Three-year study examined how four school districts (two American and two Canadian) organized, managed and pushed for professional development as a broader district level reform strategy to improve teaching and learning.
• Training Urban School Counselors and Psychologists To Work with Culturally, Linguistically, Urban, and Ethnically Diverse Populations
  Discusses the need to train urban school counselors and psychologists to address the needs of culturally, linguistically, urban, and ethnically diverse (CLUE) students, proposing a major CLUE philosophy training program to be incorporated into the existing degree sequence. Notes major competencies needed for multicultural training and presents key readings to help students and professionals familiarize themselves with the competencies.
• Two Important New Documents Reviewed: OFSTED and TTA
  Reviews the OFSTED document, "Educational Inequality: Mapping Race, Class and Gender. A Synthesis of Research Evidence," (which examines the persistent inequality between the main ethnic populations within English schools) and the Teacher Training Agency document, "Raising the Attainment of Minority Ethnic Pupils: Guidance and Resource Materials for Providers of Initial Teacher Training" (which focuses on racial equality and teacher training).
• Uncovering Hidden Stories: Pre-Service Teachers Explore Cultural Connections
  Describes assignments which were originally developed as part of an action research project investigating how students' classroom experiences might inform their previously held ideas of various cultural groups. Explains an activity in which students tell a story about themselves.
• Understanding the Context of the "Other" Education: Black and White Students Talk about Their Experiences at Lone Star University, a Predominantly White Institution of Higher Education in the South
  This study examined students perceptions of campus racial climate and the effects it has on their growth and development while attending a predominantly white research university (Research 1 classification) where black students are less than 3% of the student body. The study sought to illuminate the perceptions of campus climate and development as experienced by black and white students.
• Using data-based inquiry and decision making to improve instruction.
  Teacher inquiry groups using data-based inquiry and decision making helps to create (DBDM) helps to create a more professional culture where teachers can be reflective about their practice and can base their instructional programs on objective data.
• What Helps Students of Color Succeed? Resiliency Factors for Students Enrolled in Multicultural Educators Programs
  This study investigated factors that helped students of color enrolled in multicultural educator programs succeed academically, focusing on resiliency factors that supported their academic success (defined as college graduation or current enrollment at the sophomore level or higher). First an initial focus group with several minority students verified whether resilience factors from prior research were sufficient.