Historically marginalized students (HMS), defined for the purposes of this study as Latino, African American, and English Language Learners, in low-performing and low-socioeconomic schools (those usually with a high percentage students receiving free or reduced-price lunch) have received significant attention and research over the years. However, little attention has been paid to minority students at otherwise high-performing (mostly Caucasian) schools. Research suggests an achievement gap between HMS and Caucasian and Asian students. This case study sought to identify strategies to remedy this academic achievement gap. The focus of this study was the academic performance of HMS in a suburban setting. To better understand how a high-performing school affects academic performance by HMS, the researcher examined the classroom environment, teacher instructional strategies, leadership practices, and school support services of one such school. This study used a case study format to examine a suburban elementary charter school within an urban school district. The study specifically investigated the language arts instruction of two fourth- and two fifth-grade classrooms. These grade levels were selected due to evidence that the achievement gap begins to widen at this point in HMS school careers and continues through the 12th grade. Three data collection methods were used: (a) a document review of current fourth- and fifth-grade language arts curricula, (b) classroom observations conducted to identify teacher instructional strategies that support HMS, and (c) interviews with four teachers and two administrators after the observations. Known strategies that have positively influenced the achievement of historically marginalized students include equitable classroom instruction, positive teacher-student relationships, culturally relevant practices, a nurturing school culture, directed teacher professional development, and strong school leadership. The study sought to identify differentiated positive classroom environments, current use of teacher instructional strategies, elements of strong leadership practices, and implementation of school support services that foster academic achievement by HMS.

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This study was used in elementary science at the Rio Linda Union School, Sacramento Country, California as an orientation course in the seventh and eighth grades to transform school science from a mysterious abstraction into an understandable, enjoyable and useful field of knowledge that is indispensable to a child's understanding of his environment. This is of value to the child especially during his out-of-school activities, which is so well brought out by McBee:........the purpose of child study of nature is to put the child into intimate and essential contact with things of his external world, thereby developing a keen and personal interest in natural objects and phenomena of the world about him, broadening his horizons and developing his perceptions.1 These interests and activities of his immediate environment should develop, in time, in furthering science interests, appreciations and knowledges. As stated by McBee: The wider implications of nature study are concerned with opening the mind of pupils by direct observation to a knowledge and love of the common things in environment, with increasing their joy of living.1 Statement of the Problem. The problem of the study was: .The development of a better understanding by the child of his natural environmental resources in the rural elementary schools of Sacramento County. Due to the grouping of the grades seven and eight under one teacher in most of the rural schools,3 the study covered only these two grades. The writer believes, through his experiences with younger students on conducted Saturday hikes, that rural schools of one-teacher size could also follow the general procedure with successful results.1 This study will not present a method of teaching nor a course of study, but will attempt to give a set of guiding procedures, information and findings which the writer hopes will be of some value and inspiration to teachers in developing a better understanding by the child of his natural environmental resource. Importance of the Problem. The writer has sensed the need of a better understanding of their environment by children, through close contacts with them, and realizes that they know very little or see very little of their immediate environment except as they are directed to it.

The orientation course in the Sacramento Senior High School has developed withint the school. In making a study of this orientation course, it seems important to make a study of some representative schools in the west and middle west sections of our country. In order to determine that schools where orientation was included in the course of study, I wrote to Professor James H. Corson, Dean of Personnel and Professor of Education in charge of courses of counseling and guidance at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, Califonria. I also wrote to Dr. E. A. Krug, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. These professors responded promptly, giving lists of schools with notable programs of orientation. Dean Corson's list was mainly of schools in the west, and Dr. Krug's list mentioned some schools in the middle west. To these schools were sent letters of inquiry concerning their orientation set-up and its functioning. The response given by these schools in sending information is very much appreciated. Many local questions have been answered as a result of this study. It is also hoped that when some of the valuable features suggested in the responses are incorporated in our Sacramento course, many students in the future may receive may receive benefit fromits findings.

At the beginning of summer each year, a vast number of school children all over our land are released for two months or more to enjoy a period of leisure. With the steady growth of cities, it has become a problem in many large urban districts to care for these children, especially the adolescents who find it a perplexing problem to know how to spend their leisure time.

Dr. Alexis F. Lange is living forever in this chosen field, not in a mosaic of marble, but in the lives and actions of men and women today, who came in personal contact with his warm congenial personality and the inspiration of his spirit and ideals. It was largely through his efforts in establishing the junior high schools and the junior colleges, that the school children of today are able to live in situations better adapted to their educational needs.

This study represents a survey of the budgetary procedures of selected elementary school districts in Marin County which recorded an average daily attendance over six hundred in the school year 1955-56. The problem for this study may be stated as a question: What are desirable budgetary procedures for elementary school districts in Marin County having over six hundred average daily attendance. The problem emanates from the pertinent literature in this area which is summarized by the statement appearing in the New York State Budget Handbook wherein it states that budget development is not a simple process. There is the somewhat complicated problem of translating aims and objectives into numbers of personnel and supplies in addition to the pressing problem of the “tax consciousness” at the local level. More specifically, the first purpose of the study was to determine the budgetary procedures which were currently practiced by the selected districts. The aforementioned questionnaire was developed which set forth a comprehensive list of desirable procedures as derived from the pertinent literature and consultation with business officials in the county. The tabulation of responses to this questionnaire made possible an evaluation of these procedures in terms of usage which satisfied the second purpose. This tabulation aided in the third purpose which was to formulate a guide to budgetary procedures for use by the selected districts as well as others in Marin County.

It was the quest for answers to such questions which prompted this study. It is an effort to discover what young people in an out of school think about their training for family living. It is an effort to compare their opinions with those of adults and to evaluate them in terms of feasibility, goals, and sound learning experiences. It was expected that the material provided by this study would give direction to the development of a program of family life education in a community.