The purpose of the study was to develop a model for use by planners of migrant education. Attitudes and behaviors of planners and teachers relative to the academic expectations set for migrant students were assessed. The levels of task difficulty, information sources, and feedback mechanisms encouraged by planners and the evaluation standards applied by teachers were investigated. Descriptive analyses were made and reported for data collected from twenty-five teachers and fifty state and local planners attending the Eleventh Annual National Migrant Education Conference.While academic achievement was generally judged to be a priority, half the teachers and over one-third of the planners expressed lower expectations for migrant students than for the general student population. These findings were interpreted as substantiating a need for a model for setting higher academic expectations. Teachers and planners also favored assigning easier tasks for migrant students, a practive revealed in the review of literature as producing unhappiness and shame in the student.Diffuse use of warmth and friendlines was reported by-teachers of migrant students. An exception showed that teachers tended to use warmth and friendliness discriminately for purposes of classroom control. In findings of related research a relationship was established between diffuse warmth and friendliness and low academic achievement.Sources, highly susceptible to the effect of existing expectations and stereotypes were favored. Teachers used multiple sources of information, but relied most on ethnic background and communication from other teachers. Information about student past performance was used more than information comparing migrant students to national or local norms.The following were conclusions of the study:1. Migrant teachers and planners hold lower expectations for migrant students than for the general population, an attitude found to relate to low academic achievement.2. Teachers exhibit warmth and friendliness toward migrant students without regard to the quality of performance. Such use of diffuse warmth and friendliness has been found to be directly related to low academic achievement.3. Teachers and planners rely on past performance, ethnic background, and other teachers for information. All three sources promote a continuation of low expectations.4. By giving the highest grade or mark available to migrant students regardless of the quality or difficulty of work, teachers lead migrant students to believe their work is outstanding.5. Migrant students, assigned easy tasks, are thereby subjected to conditions which produce unhappiness as well as limited academic achievement.6. Migrant students, seldom provided evaluation information based on comparison with others, must rely on non-challenging past experiences in establishing future expectation for self.An interactive model involving teachers indirectly in raising Mexican-American student expectations was designed based on the findings of the study and related research. Components of the model included the existing national math and reading skill lists, a national norm-referenced achievement test or tests, systematic student career goal-setting by parents, systematic academic expectation objective-setting by students, and process evaluation of teacher use of feedback with students.Processes were identified for interstate, intrastate, and intra-project interactions. At each level peer commitments among implementers combined with implementation experiences would result in the use of increasing numbers of information sources. Ultimately teachers, parents, and students supported by local, state and federal planners would set challenging academic expectations for migrant students.

The goal of current education reform is to increase student achievement (Odden & Clune, 1995). Discrepancies, however, continue to exist in the achievement between the White majority and the minorities of color, including Hispanics as seen in the results of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Although 198 Texas elementary schools received an exemplary rating in 2005 for their TAKS performance, only a handful of those schools with a high percentage of Hispanic, economically disadvantaged, and Limited English Proficient (LEP) student enrollment achieved this coveted academic rating (TEA, 2005). This study attempts to answer the research questions: 1) Which, if any, instructional practices are present in the exemplary-rated campuses with high numbers of Hispanic LEP students compared to acceptable-rated campuses with the same type of student populations? and 2) Are educators aware of and modifying their instructional practices to be more aligned with proven research-based practices? The Best Practice and Benchmark Concept provides the framework for the study. The design includes the use of a survey, interviews, an observation checklist, and an analysis of documents to compare the practices of two exemplary-rated campuses and two acceptable-rated campuses, all spanning grades PreK-5th grade, enrolling at least 500 students, and serving high percentages of Hispanic, economically disadvantaged, and LEP students. Findings revealed differences in the consistent use of best practices, in the methods of instruction (structured and directive versus constructivist), in the positive attitude and commitment of teachers, in the type of research-based programs, and in the instructional settings of the bilingual/ESL students. The finding of mixing structured, directive instruction to promote student success before moving to a more constructivist method of teaching is a practice rarely encountered in literature. All other practices observed have been documented in literature. In addition, educators were indeed found to be modifying their practices to align with those proven in research. Other factors besides best practices which influence student achievement surfaced, indicating the difference in performance between the exemplary and the acceptable campuses could not be attributed solely to the use of best practices. / text

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The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Project BIG on the self-concept and black pride of urban black children at the fourth-grade level. The study was conducted as a part of Project BIG (Black Image Growth), a Model Cities-supported inservice social studies program, which emphasized the concerns and contributions of black people in the study of Indiana history. The curricular emphasis was implemented by project teachers who used image-rehabilitation social studies materials developed in consultation with Project BIG directors.The sampling population was restricted by grade level and Model Cities School membership. Enrollment in a graduate course, "Seminar in Elementary Education," and participation in bi-weekly teacher training workshops during the 1971-72 school year were additional requirements for the teachers. Four of the original twelve project teachers met these criteria. Students of these four teachers were considered the experimental group. Students from the remaining nineteen Model Cities fourth-grade classrooms were considered the control group.