This qualitative research study inquired about the literacy experiences of language minority students in a middle school language arts classroom using the scripted program High Point. In addition, the study inquired about the ideology present in the curricular program High Point. Using qualitative methodology and an inductive analysis approach to the data, the findings of this study were alarming. The study found that there was no literacy or learning occurring in the classroom. There was not even functional literacy occurring in the classroom. On the contrary, students were being assimilated into a dominant culture different than their own, leading to resistance on the students’ behalf as they were clearly tracked for a life in high school that did not prepare them for academic success.

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Decades after Brown versus the Board of Education, America has found itself waist high in another disaster. Today school children and their families are not as worried about the race of the child next to them in math class; however, they are more concerned about how their child's educational experience in a poverty stricken neighborhood compares to the educational experience of the child uptown in the affluent neighborhood. All over the United States, school-aged children are experiencing the repercussions of a failed educational plan. Although each state is responsible for creating and implementing its own proposal, a common flaw is evident throughout almost all 50 states. The distribution of funds and resources varies unequally from district to district and from school to school -- specifically from wealthy and white districts to minority and poverty stricken districts. In effect, this unequal distribution hurts students' achievement, and ultimately their chances of success later in life. One of the states that has a problem with its educational plan is Florida. Students in high minority, low economic schools receive fewer dollars, less experienced and qualified teachers, and score lower on standardized tests when compared to students in low minority, high economic schools. The following study was created to show that poor and minority students are affected by several gaps that separate them from their affluent white peers. Those gaps are specifically the funding gap, the teacher quality gap, and the skill gap. This research will bring deserved attention to the unfair educational system of the state of Florida, and of the United States, that hinders the achievement of poor and minority students.

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between discrete areas of cognitive processing and academic achievement in minority children. There have been many questions about the fairness of current testing practices as they have been applied to students from differing ethnicities. These students are entitled by law to a meaningful, nonbiased assessment of their abilities. The minority children targeted for study were bilingual Hispanic students. Cognitive processing tasks were drawn from established measures of perceptual-motor development, auditory recall, and nonverbal intellectual ability. Academic achievement was measured by two comprehensive tests, one that was English-based and another that was Spanish-based. One hundred fifty-eight students enrolled in eleven third grade classrooms were examined. The subjects participated in group administrations of the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, and a bilingual version of the Digit Span subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. The Spanish-based achievement test was La Prueba Riverside de Realizacion en Espanol. The English-based achievement test was the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Data were first analyzed by a stepwise multiple regression procedure to determine which of the experimental measures would predict academic achievement. Results indicated that the strongest predictor of academic achievement were scores from the test of nonverbal intellectual ability, which held true for both achievement tests. Scores in immediate auditory recall in English predicted achievement in certain achievement areas, but only on the Spanish-based test. Scores on the perceptual-motor test also predicted achievement on the Spanish-based test only. Auditory recall in Spanish did not predict achievement in any area on either test. The study concludes with a discussion of the viability of the independent measures as a meaningful, comprehensive test battery to be used with minority children in schools. Implications for future research and administrative planning are discussed.

The problem of this study concerns ethnoviolence on the campus of a predominantly white, state-supported university in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area. In order to study ethnoviolent behavior, the effects it has on the victims, and the perceptions that minority students have of the campus climate, all African-American, Hispanic, and international students enrolled at The University of Texas at Dallas were mailed a questionnaire.

Diplomová práce Relations in gender-unbalanced classes ABSTRACT The diploma thesis is focused on relations in gender-unbalanced high school classes. A combination of three methods was used for data collection: sociometric rating questionnaire, questionnaire for girls and boys in the classroom and interview with teachers. The sample included six schools in Prague. The theoretical part maps the influence of gender stereotypes on development of individuals and character of relationships in coeducated and separated classes. The empirical part provides data analysis with respect to the whole group and the position of minority individuals among classmates. Results showed that gender-unbalanced classes evaluated mutual popularity and influence comparably to gender-balanced classes. However, classes with predominance of girls achieved better results since the respondents reflected greater respect and tolerance in comparison to classes with predominance of boys. The boys' minority is more satisfied among girls than the girls' minority among boys. Boys in the boys' classes were negatively assessed for not appreciating girls and laughing at them. In both types of gender unbalanced collectives, minorities were in the background and not participating in class very much. Qualitative analysis of verbal responses has shown...

This study traced the development of the Equity 2000 Program in the Fort Worth Independent School District from its inception in 1990 to its sixth and final year as an exemplary program for equal access to higher education for minority and underserved youth. Program components included mathematics, counseling, staff development, academic enrichment activities, parent education and higher education linkages. Both primary and secondary sources were evaluated from the perspectives of internal and external criticism. The following conclusions were reached: 1) District policy must change if minority students are going to access algebra and geometry. 2) The lack of involvement of other curriculum areas created primarily a mathematics inservice program. 3) Required inservice was necessary to provide improved and more effective campus and district results. 4) The precollege guidance and counseling component needed integration with the mathematics component. 5) Lack of principals' involvement in the early development of the program contributed to uneven administrative support. 6) There was no definitive strategy for parental inclusion. 7) Funding sources were inadequate to fully implement all parts of the program. 8) There was limited participation of local institutions of higher education. 9) There was a lack of an ongoing, structured evaluation process to document the program's effectiveness. 10) Attitudes and perceptions of minority students and their parents about success in higher level mathematics courses can change over time. 11) The program was costly with limited documentation of the results. 12) Much of the training provided mathematics teachers and guidance counselors should be preservice instruction. The researcher made the following recommendations: conduct a historical study at each Equity site; continue the Summer Mathematics and Guidance Institutes; continue the Saturday Academy and the Algebra/Geometry Readiness Academies; provide outreach efforts to parents; provide precollege information to students and their parents; and provide related teacher and counselor preservice training.

This research explores mentor outcomes of university students serving in service-learning mentoring relationships between university service-learning student volunteers and language minority student mentees. These outcomes are helpful in improving academic and personal progress for both the student mentors and the mentees. The mentoring relationships may be particularly important given the challenges facing an increasing number of language minority students in communities and schools today. Research indicates that student mentees perform better academically when mentors assist in their learning and growth. As part of the greater network of educational and community leaders, university administrators have the opportunity to create mentoring opportunities that effectively contribute to positive outcomes for both student mentors and mentees. The foundation of mentoring relationships is the nature and type of interactions that constitutes each mentoring relationship. The nature of these interactions may contribute to positive effects on the student academic achievement of student mentors and mentees. Universities provide both knowledge and human resources through service-learning experiences for student mentors that can create and sustain valuable mentoring opportunities. This research seeks to help university administrators and community leaders better understand the nature of mentoring relationships and identify the factors that are related to effective service-learning mentoring experiences with language minority students. This qualitative research used both survey and interview data to better understand the mentoring relationships and outcomes of university service-learning students. Factors such as cross cultural understanding, length of time spent in the mentoring relationship, and shared language were found from this research to have the most significant impact on service-learning mentoring relationships.

In the city selected for this study, only 29% of inner-city students scored proficiently on standardized tests, whereas 71% of their peers at nearby suburban and affluent schools achieved the proficiency level. To address the gap, the local district implemented ability grouping in one charter school. The purpose of this ex post facto quasi-experimental study was to examine the effect of ability grouping among inner-city students in mathematics as an instructional intervention for improving student achievement. Ability grouping theory as an instructional strategy was used as the theoretical framework for this study. The criterion measure of mathematics improvement was provided by the test results from the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measure of Academic Progress (NWEA-MAP), a computer-adaptive assessment of mathematics. Using population data for 2012-2014 inner-city 8th graders who took the pretest and posttest NWEA-MAP (N = 234), two 1-way analyses of variances were used to test for mean differences in the NWEA-MAP improvement scores between ability-grouped (n = 115) and non-ability-grouped (n = 115) students, then specifically between students who were grouped as high ability (n = 55) and low ability (n = 55). The ability-grouped students had significantly higher improvement scores than did the nongrouped students. For those students who were ability grouped, no statistically significant difference existed in improvement between the high and low ability groups. A position paper was developed recommending student grouping to improve academic performance of inner-city school students. Positive social change will occur as the achievement gap is closed for students who attend inner-city schools.

Little is known about the college adjustment of first-generation students, particularly those from various racial/ethnic groups. This study sought to describe the college adjustment of first-generation students from three different racial/ethnic backgrounds (White/non-Hispanic, Black and Hispanic) and to determine whether generational status and race/ethnicity jointly or separately affect college adjustment as measured by responses to the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ). A sample of 418 students (208 first-generation, 210 non-first-generation; 140 White, 138 Black, and 140 Hispanic) was drawn from a population of 4,718 degree-seeking, self-identified undergraduates at a research university in the Southeast. A 2 X 3 factorial ANOVA was used to assess the effects of generational status and race/ethnicity on college adjustment. There was no significant interaction between the independent variables on adjustment to college, nor were there significant main effects. Despite follow-up data collection efforts, a low response rate (34%) to the online administration of the instrument and consequent low number of respondents in each cell may have obscured existing differences. Other implications are discussed, including the question of SACQ sensitivity to racial/ethnic differences and difficulties of web-based survey administration in an institutional setting.