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Background: While postwar suburban migration established suburbs as relatively affluent, homogeneous white enclaves distinct from the urban core, recent waves of suburbanization and exurbanization have been spurred largely by rapid growth in the nonwhite population. While these increases in suburban racial/ethnic diversity represent a significant evolution of the traditional "chocolate city, vanilla suburbs" dichotomy, scholars have expressed concern that they are worsening racial/ethnic segregation among suburban public school students. Objective: In this study, we document shifts in the racial imbalance of suburban schools in terms of several racial/ethnic and geographic dimensions (i.e., multiracial, black-white; between and within suburban districts, among localities). In addition, we extend the urban/suburban dichotomy to provide initial evidence on changes in racial balance in metropolitan exurbs. Finally, we use inferential models to directly examine the impact of changes in racial/ethnic diversity on shifts in racial imbalance. Research Design: Using demographic data from the National Center of Education Statistics Common Core of Data on 209 U.S. metropolitan areas, we provide a descriptive analysis of changes in segregation within and between urban, suburban, and exurban localities from 2002 to 2012. We measure segregation using Theil's entropy index, which quantifies racial balance across geographic units. We assess the relationship between demographic change and change in segregation via a series of longitudinal fixed-effects models. Results: Longitudinal analyses indicate that increases in racial/ethnic diversity are positively related to change in racial imbalance. However, observed increases in diversity were generally insufficient to produce meaningful increases in segregation. As a result, suburbs and exurbs, like urban areas, experienced little change in segregation, although trends were generally in a negative direction and more localities experienced meaningful declines in segregation than meaningful increases. Findings are less encouraging for suburbs and exurbs than for urban areas and underscore the intractability of black-white racial imbalance and the emerging spatial imbalance of Asians and whites. We also document an important shift in the geographic distribution of segregation, with suburbs now accounting for a plurality of metropolitan segregation. Conclusions: Contrary to previous researchers, we do not find evidence that suburban and exurban schools are resegregating, although we fail to document meaningful progress towards racial equity. Moreover, while suburbs are not necessarily resegregating, we find that segregation is suburbanizing, and now accounts for the largest share of segregation of any locality. We conclude with a discussion of recommendations for policy and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Schools face pressure to promote equitable student outcomes as the achievement gap continues to persist. The authors examine different ways in which social capital has been conceptualized as well as prior theory and research on its formation and consequences. While some theoretical and empirical work conceptualizes social capital as a mechanism for prosocial outcomes, other scholars address it as an apparatus of social status. Purpose: This study was conducted to advance knowledge about (a) the validity of measuring social capital as an organizational construct, (b) the equity of social capital distribution in schools, and (c) the relationship between school social capital and academic achievement. Research Design: In this paper, the authors examine these possibilities using data collected from 96 Midwestern high schools. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, and structural equation modeling were employed to depict the relationships among social capital, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement in schools. Findings/Results: The authors found that variance in social capital was significantly related to school membership and that confirmatory factor analysis supported the construction of a school social capital measure. Moreover, more than half of the variance in social capital is unrelated to social class, and social capital is a positive predictor of academic achievement. Conclusions/Recommendations: Because of its positive relation to achievement, investments in the development of social capital may be worthwhile. Interventions designed to develop social capital in schools should be guided by efforts to strengthen access to school-based resources in poor and low achieving schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the prominent narrative asserting that liberal arts colleges have continuously declined in number and status over the past 130 years. Bruce A. Kimball identifies problems in this declension narrative and proposes a revision positing that the decline of liberal arts colleges began only after 1970. Further, he maintains that the fraction of the U.S. population enrolling in collegiate liberal arts programs has remained surprisingly consistent over the past two centuries. That same fraction continues after 1970 because universities began to replicate the liberal arts college by establishing honors programs, and student enrollment after 1970 shifted from liberal arts colleges to the new subsidized honors programs in universities. Kimball concludes that this shift does not ensure that the fraction of enrollment in collegiate liberal arts will continue to remain consistent in the future. There is reason to doubt the long-term commitment of universities to supporting honors programs devoted to the traditional liberal arts college mission of fostering culture, community, and character, although this mission grows more important and complex as access to and diversity in higher education increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To examine the effects of the concentration of Latino students in elementary schools on Latino first graders' test scores, and to determine if the effects vary by children's nativity status. Methods We use generalized estimating equations (GEE) on a sample of Latino first graders from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998 (ECLS-K). Results For math and reading, Latino concentration in schools improves students' first grade test scores for Latino children of immigrants, but it has no effect for Latino children of U.S.-born parents. For general knowledge test scores, Latino concentration has no effect for children of immigrants and has a deleterious impact on the scores of children of U.S.-born parents. We also show no effect of Latino concentration on the scores of white children of U.S.-born parents. Conclusions The results suggest that Latino concentration in elementary schools promotes educational outcomes for children from Latino immigrant families, but Latino families headed by U.S.-born parents do not benefit from coethnic concentration, which is in accordance with expectations derived from assimilation theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the impact of a student's race on disciplinary action and academic achievement in the U.S., particularly focusing on race gaps in North Carolina's educational system. It addresses the use of demographic methods to investigate the effects of race gaps on individual students, peer groups, and overall school composition. It comments on the importance of students' family and the distribution of students across the state to explaining demographic differences in middle schools in North Carolina.

As the "land of opportunity" and arguably the greatest country in the world, the United States continues to change -- culturally, racially, and linguistically. Reports abound regarding the changing demographics of the country and its schools. Over a 2-decade span (1989-2009), the percentage of "minority" students in public schools (referring to Hispanic American, African American, Asian American, and Native American students) increased from 32% to 45%. This trend is expected to continue, with these 4 groups soon becoming the numerical majority nationally, as is the case already in many school districts. With these changes come growing pains. Special education often receives attention, including debates and litigation, regarding disproportionality or over-representation, particularly among African American students (especially males). This albatross has plagued the field for decades. This article presents an overview of demographics in schools and special education, discusses overrepresentation, and provides suggestions for much-needed changes now and in the future. It is guided by the primary question: What does the future hold for Black, Hispanic, and English language learners in special education? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the form and function of the Korean family at the beginning of the twenty-first century are inextricably related to the process of globalisation. The kirŏgi family is one of several novel family types that have emerged since 1990. It is a split-household, transnational family with the mother and children moving to an English-speaking country for the children's education and the father staying behind in Korea to work and support the family. The kirŏgi family is a response to the challenges of rapid globalisation, to English as the global hegemonic language, to Korea's economic success and democratisation and to the rapid development of transportation and communication technology. Based on surveys and interviews with kirŏgi families in the Washington Metropolitan Area, we examine what makes the kirŏgi project worth considering, practicable and desirable, as these middle-class Korean families pursue success through education in the global arena. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A vast literature has documented the inverse association between educational attainment and U.S. adult mortality risk but given little attention to identifying the optimal functional form of the association. A theoretical explanation of the association hinges on our ability to describe it empirically. Using the 1979-1998 National Longitudinal Mortality Study for non-Hispanic white and black adults aged 25-100 years during the mortality follow-up period ( N = 1,008,215), we evaluated 13 functional forms across race-gender-age subgroups to determine which form(s) best captured the association. Results revealed that the preferred functional form includes a linear decline in mortality risk from 0 to 11 years of education, followed by a step-change reduction in mortality risk upon attainment of a high school diploma, at which point mortality risk resumes a linear decline but with a steeper slope than that prior to a high school diploma. The findings provide important clues for theoretical development of explanatory mechanisms: an explanation for the selected functional form may require integrating a credentialist perspective to explain the step-change reduction in mortality risk upon attainment of a high school diploma, with a human capital perspective to explain the linear declines before and after a high school diploma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Several studies have identified that applicants who apply to college via early admissions programs tend to be White and affluent. Because researchers have also identified benefits with applying early, akin to a 100 point boost on the SAT, such programs raise questions around equity in the college admissions process. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study/Research Design: We used cross-classified hierarchical generalized linear modeling to examine predictors of enrolling due to being admitted through an early decision or early action program in a national dataset of 88,086 students. Although research has investigated the types of institutions that tend to offer early action and early decision programs, the types of students who apply to these programs, and the types of high schools that they come from, no prior study has examined these three contexts simultaneously. Findings/Results: When controlling for high school, individual, and institutional characteristics, receiving private college counseling was the strongest predictor of enrolling due to early admissions. We suggest that elevated levels of cultural capital help explain why White and affluent students are more likely to enroll vía early admissions. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our findings indicate that early admissions programs, and in particular, early decision, perpetuate social privilege and stratification. At a minimum, institutions need to look inward and ask serious questions about the patterns of who applies and is accepted vía early policies, and the implications of offering advantages to students who generally already are advantaged in the admissions process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Medical education in the USA has historically been designed around social and economic conditions within the medical community, contributing to a fluctuating emphasis on the number of medical schools, as well as the methods by which medicine has been taught, and ultimately leading to a shortage in the physician supply. This paper aims to describe the current status of medical education training, including the tracing of its origins, and to articulate the ability of new media to accelerate and restructure the physician preparation process.Design/methodology/approach – The application of new media requires a rethinking of long-held assumptions regarding the medical education process. Medical school faculty must be willing to develop new curriculum models, integrating new media technologies to facilitate varied learning modalities. Likewise, clinicians and basic scientists in medical schools must determine the most appropriate information needed by a practicing physician and make that information available via new media platforms.Findings – The utilization of new media presents the opportunity to both accelerate and restructure the medical education and training process. The development of teaching and learning modalities via new media can positively impact the physician supply problem by transforming medical education to a competency and evidence-based curriculum in an accelerated format.Originality/value – The impending health consequences of a physician shortage have crystallized the need to begin immediately to expand the physician supply. In order to meet the health needs of a growing and aging population, it is imperative that the methods of medical education be altered to accelerate and improve the physician preparation process. This restructuring of the medical education curriculum is dependent on the utilization of new media to leverage the digital literacy of today's medical students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: School closure is becoming an increasingly common policy response to underperforming urban schools. Districts typically justify closure decisions by pointing to schools' low performance on measures required by No Child Left Behind. Closures disproportionately fall on schools with high percentages of poor and working-class students of color. Few studies have examined how students interpret or respond to school closures. Purpose: Our purpose was to document narratives articulated by students about the closure of their high school. Doing so is important because students, particularly students of color from low-income families, are often left out of policy decisions that affect their lives. Population/Participants: Research participants were recruited from the population of youth who had attended the closed school and who remained in the district during the subsequent year. Twenty-three percent of students at the school were African American, 75 % were Latino, and 2 % were White. Over 90 % of students were eligible for free and reduced lunch. A total of 106 students responded to surveys and peer interviews, and 12 youth who had dropped out of school participated in focus groups. Research Design: This was a youth participatory action research (YPAR) study, designed collaboratively by former Jefferson students, university researchers, and adult community members. Data sources included open-ended surveys, peer interviews, focus groups, and field notes describing public events and YPAR meetings. Findings: Our data show that most respondents did not agree with the decision to close their school. Student disagreement surfaced two counternarratives. First, students critiqued the way the decision was made--they felt excluded from the decision-making process that led to closure. Second, they critiqued the rationale for the decision, which suggested that students needed to be rescued from a failing school. Students articulated features of Jefferson that they valued, such as trusting relationships with adults, connection to place, and sense of belonging, which they felt were discounted by the decision. Conclusions/Recommendations: Evidence from this study lends support to developmental and political justifications for robust youth participation in equity-based school reform. By developmental justification, we mean evidence that young people were ready to participate, which counters discourses about youth as immature or unprepared. By political justification, we mean evidence that youth articulated interests that were discounted in the decision-making process and that challenged normative assumptions about school quality. In our conclusion, we point to examples of expanded roles that students could play in decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the attitudes of U.S. college students towards their college's commitment to diversity. Topics discussed include the New England Consortium on Assessment and Student Learning (NECASL) formed by regional accreditor the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the differences between being committed to diversity and effectively achieving diversity, and the intermixing of racial and ethnic groups on college campuses.

After a review of the literature elucidating the status quo for students experiencing homelessness, this article shares the results of a mixed methods study. With a phenomenolqgical qualitative emphasis, the mixed methods study explored the perceptions of parents and children experiencing homelessness regarding their academic needs and the services they considered to be helpful. The researchers also examined archival data associated with an after school tutoring program offered at an agency that works with families experiencing homelessness. A paired samples t test indicated a significant difference the number of failed courses for participants in the tutoring program over a one-year period. Difference in grade point average was not significant over the same period of time. The article shares implications and recommendations for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of research on the challenges facing higher education institutions in supporting the needs of an adult student population that is no longer nontraditional in the U.S. It cites several characteristics of a nontraditional student including an entry to college has been delayed by at least one year following high school, being financially independent, and not having a high school diploma. It indicates that adult learners who experience academic success in higher education tend to gain personal and economic benefits. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data reveal that 38% of the enrollment of more than 18 million college students in 2007 were 25 years of age or older.

Differences between Caucasian and non-Caucasian students were examined in terms of perceptions of diversity among faculty members, satisfaction with faculty diversity, perceptions that faculty diversity contributed to their educational experience, and perceptions of faculty respect for diversity among students. Surveys were distributed electronically to all majors from one department at a predominantly-Caucasian university; 109 were returned. Caucasians, compared to non-Caucasians, agreed more strongly that the faculty appeared to be from diverse backgrounds, that they were satisfied with the level of diversity among faculty, and that faculty respected diversity among students; Non-Caucasians agreed more strongly that faculty diversity contributed their educational experiences. Non-Caucasian students, compared to Caucasian students, may not have perceived a department dominated by Caucasian faculty as welcoming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the post-World War II era, most U.S. colleges and universities began to promote diversity and internationalization ideals. However, the extent to which U.S. higher education institutions have been successful in achieving diversity, especially in relation to stimulating diverse social interactions between the international and American student body, is an area of study that requires further investigation. The purpose of this study was to examine international graduate students' perceptions of diversity efforts at a specific U.S. higher education institution, and how these perceptions influenced their social interaction choices and practices while pursuing their degrees at the institution. A qualitative methodology was conducted with 60 participants from 26 different countries. Based upon the data that was analyzed, international graduate students identified five major areas at the University that require improvement if diverse social interactions are to take place. Policy recommendations for improvements are also presented which may be useful to higher education faculty, administrators and policy-makers interested in improving international relations and campus diversity initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Many children of immigrants are not enrolled in high schools that sufficiently meet their needs, and subsequently, many are not making a successful transition to, and/or successfully completing, higher education. As immigration grows in the United States, educators and policy makers must understand how the educational processes for children of immigrants differ from nonimmigrants. Because expectations for higher education are a necessary, though insufficient, step toward college attendance and degree attainment, and because students have these attitudes influenced by the schools they attend, I examine high school composition for its effects on educational expectations and how compositional effects differ between children of immigrants and nonimmigrants. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This study intends to be another step on the path toward understanding the educational processes of children of immigrants specifically, and of all students more broadly, as the immigrant population grows in U.S. schools. Toward those ends, this study is based on two overarching research questions: (1) How do the immigrant compositions of U.S. secondary schools affect the educational expectations of all students? (2) How do the compositions of U.S. secondary schools affect the educational expectations of children of immigrants differently than nonimmigrant students? Research Design: The research questions are addressed via secondary data analysis using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS.2002/2004), which were collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. I explore school composition effects on a binary dependent variable indicating whether a 12th-grade student expects to complete a graduate or professional degree. This study emphasizes a critical-quantitative approach by demonstrating that common theories and assumptions about educational expectations may be inaccurate for children of immigrants in today's schools. Conclusions/Recommendations: Results show that children of immigrants are affected differently by school composition than are nonimmigrants, and in ways that contradict commonly accepted theoretical views. Specifically, this analysis demonstrates that comparative and normative theories of school effects are not accurate for children of immigrants, at least not to the same degree as they are for nonimmigrants. This is a reminder to researchers and practitioners alike that subgroups of students, in this case the children of immigrants, may not be affected by schools in similar ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Seasonal researchers have developed a theory and hypotheses regarding the importance of neighborhood and school contexts for early childhood learning but have not possessed nationally representative data and precise contextual measures with which to examine their hypotheses. Purpose/Research Questions: This empirical study employs a seasonal perspective to assess the degree to which social context and race/ethnic composition--in neighborhoods and schools--affect the reading achievement growth of young children. The authors ask, Were there specific seasons when context and/or composition were particularly salient for reading achievement? Also, did accounting for context and composition challenge established appraisals of the relationship between family factors and achievement? Population: Data for a nationally representative sample of students proceeding through kindergarten and first grade came from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). Neighborhood social and race/ethnic measures came from the 2000 Census. Research Design: This quantitative study employs a three-level model that assesses reading achievement at school entry and during three subsequent seasons. The model represents reading achievement as a time-varying process at level 1, conditional upon family socio/demographic factors at level 2, and dependent on social context and race/ethnic composition at level 3. Findings/Results: Neighborhood social context mattered substantially for students' reading achievement levels at school entry and for their reading achievement growth during the summer. The proportion of neighborhood residents from minority race/ethnic groups was not associated with reading achievement at school entry or during the summer season. During the school year, school social context to as associated with reading growth during kindergarten, and school social context and race/ethnic composition were associated with reading growth during first grade. Conclusions/Recommendations: The magnitude and frequency of contextual effects found in this national sample have considerable implications for achieving educational equality in the United States. The authors recommend that policy makers attend to the quality of neighborhood and school settings as a means of promoting literacy development for young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in the proportions of students identified as having special educational needs (SENs) across ethnic groups have historically been of concern in the United Kingdom and the United States. However, the absence of student-level data has hindered investigation of the reasons for such disproportionality. The authors present an analysis of the 2005 Pupil Level Annual School Census for 6.5 million students aged 5 to 16 years in England. Logistic regression analyses were completed to calculate the odds ratios of having identified SENs both before and after adjusting for the influence of age, gender, and socioeconomic disadvantage (poverty). Poverty and gender had stronger associations than ethnicity with the overall prevalence of SENs. However, after controlling for these effects, significant over- and underrepresentation of some minority ethnic groups relative to White British students remained. The nature and degree of these disproportionalities varied across categories of SENs and minority ethnic groups and were not restricted to judgmental categories of SENs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context:This study draws from the growing body of research dedicated to understanding how students navigate disparate pathways to college. The extant research has demonstrated the various stages that undergird the college choice process, drawing largely from economic and sociological perspectives related to human capital formation, status attainment, and social and cultural resources. Despite this growing body of research, our understanding of the college choice process across racial groups remains inconsistent and unclear. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus: The purpose of the current study is to better understand the various factors and resources that influence the decision to attend a particular college or university, with an emphasis on how the choice process manifests across different race groups. Through the development of a series of statistical models, we offer a unique glimpse into whether a common model of college choice exists, while exploring the possibility that the process and underlying factors that influence matriculation may differ depending on one's racial group membership. Research Design: Using admissions and financial aid data from eight private colleges and universities, we performed secondary data analyses on general and race-conditional models of college choice. Analysis: The current study primarily used blocked logistic regression to understand the main and conditional effects of enrollment for the general population and across four race groups. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the college choice process unfolds differently for students depending on their racial group membership. Although our models captured a significant amount of the valance for each racial group, our study reveals important distinctions related to the college choice process based on students' academic preparation, the overall academic quality of their secondary milieu, and the strength of established feeder networks between a particular high school and college. Overall, our findings provide conceptual guidance for researchers interested in studying the college choice process and emphasize the importance of examining conditional effects to fully appreciate how the process unfolds for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the increase in the number of international students in the U.S. It highlights the report Open Doors of the Institute of International Education which shows that the number of international students enrolled in universities and colleges during the 2007-2008 academic year reached 623,805. It discusses the importance of international students in the country's economic growth. It examines the effect of the global recession on foreign students. Charts depicting the economic impact of foreign students and the number of doctoral recipients in science and engineering by citizenship from 2003-2007 are presented.

Using data from the 2000 Public Use Sample of the U.S. census, this research examined how estimates of school enrollment and school-work patterns among Mexican-origin adolescents are affected by including or excluding young immigrants who never enrolled in U.S. schools. The analysis demonstrates that a nontrivial share of adolescents who were born in Mexico almost certainly never enrolled in U.S. schools; these youths most likely migrated to the United States for work. Excluding these adolescents from analyses substantially reduces gaps in school enrollment between Mexicans and whites and between native and foreign-born Mexicans. Excluding never-enrolled immigrant youths also changes the relationship between the duration of U.S. residence and idleness among Mexican immigrant youths, revealing that additional years of residence in the United States increase the likelihood of being out of school and not working compared to being in school and not working. Overall, inferences about the level of school enrollment and intraethnic differences in school enrollment by duration of residence depend on how those who are likely to have never enrolled in U.S. schools are treated. Inferences about interethnic differences are also affected, although they are somewhat less sensitive to this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the need for educational transformation in the U.S. given the advent of globalization, rapid global and local changes in demography, and rise of the knowledge economy. It emphasizes that educational institution have been slow to adopt and carry out a deliberate approach towards diversity and empowerment in the workplace. It mentions a study which suggests that leaders of high-performance organizations combine four strategies which require trust, engagement, common agenda, and collective leadership.

Education and the Disadvantaged American represented an attempt by the leaders of the American elementary and secondary education enterprise to come to terms with the failure to learn of a significant portion of the school population. The dimension of race surrounded the discussion leading to publication, but it was never addressed straightforwardly. Rather, the EPC chose to bypass race in favor of various notions of cultural disadvantage or other forms of a cultural deficit model. This choice led not to an effective document, but to a publication that skirted the major issue involved in the situation, race, while being just as negative in its discussion of cultural difference as any racist might be in considering minority races. Sources for this paper include the verbatim records of the deliberations of the Educational Policies Commission, over a two year period as it considered the problem of what to do about non-learners in schools. The eventual document produced and named in the title of this article is another source. The major secondary source for the article is Barry Franklin's From Backwardness to At Risk, the most scholarly sound history of special education in the USA. Franklin's acceptance of the possible positive result in using the term “at risk” in framing policies for non-learners is called into question, however. He sees at risk as a cultural term but this is precisely how the Educational Policies Commission viewed the term disadvantage. Thus the article concludes that the term “at risk,” as used by Franklin and the organizers of ISCHE 29, has the same problematic aspects that severely weakened the EPC publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter explores institutional attributes that matter for two-year college students and how they vary by different subpopulations of students, with an eye toward understanding what institutional attributes better support the success of underprepared students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For nearly a century, black immigrants from the West Indies have enjoyed greater economic success than African Americans. Several explanations have been proposed for this trend, but until now, none of these explanations have been subjected to systematic scrutiny. Recent efforts to adjudicate among them indicate that West Indian success can be attributed entirely to the “selectivity of migration”. This phrase refers to the tendency of people who migrate to be more talented and determined than the compatriots they leave behind. One implication of this discovery is that sympathetic observers should stop exhorting African Americans to behave more like West Indians. Such pleas are inappropriate because West Indian success is a consequence of choosing to move, not a consequence of Caribbean birth. A second implication is that persons of West Indian background remain vulnerable to racism. The new findings provide no evidence that positive selection protects West Indians from the negative stereotypes that Americans associate with black skin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The western edge of the United States is the region Joel Garreau called "Ecotopia" in his 1981 book titled The Nine Nations of North America. He explained his use of the name, "Ecotopia," as coming from a novel by Ernest Callenbach (1975), but originally from the Greek combination of the words "ecology" and "utopia." Garreau selected this as the best descriptor for the western United States; the concept of an "ecological Utopia" serves as the over-arching organizer for this vast and varied region (Garreau, 1981, p. 251). In 1981, Garreau described the region as a dynamic area, closely connected to environmental issues, and amazingly complex in terms of differences among its fast-growing population. The changes that have occurred since 1981 are staggering. This article describes these changes and examines their impact on rural education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a report on the United States Census in Schools program and its relation to biopolitics. The paper discusses the significance of the program, which aims to distribute various educational materials designed to teach students basic concepts and practice demography. It also intends to teach students that the systematic collection of census data confers the ability to influence these relationships and guide the development of the nation. Another objective of the program is to train students to appreciate their membership within the concept and to interpret themselves as participants of the nation-state.

Trends in cocaine use over the past 2 decades were compared across levels of education in a population-based US sample of adults. Significant inverse associations between educational achievement and cocaine use after 1990 were driven by dramatic decreases in persistent cocaine use among more highly educated adults, whereas persistent cocaine use remained relatively unchanged among those who did not finish high school. This emerging health disparity highlights the need for improved interventions that target persistent cocaine users with low educational achievement. (Am J Public Health. 2007;97:1790-1793. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2006.091108) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the outset of the charter school movement, some opponents feared that charter schools would become havens for White students wishing to flee the traditional public school system, resulting in publicly funded segregation. However, studies suggest that this has not occurred. In fact, charter schools on average remain slightly racially segregated, enrolling more minority students than traditional public schools. Segregation in charter schools is not unavoidable considering that they often can exercise more control of student body composition through recruitment measures. This article examines the current racial makeup of charter schools by reporting student body diversity data in the 32 states that enroll more than 1,000 students in charter schools (as of 2002-2003). Additionally, the impact of parental choice, the lifting of desegregation decrees, and state statutory language on the racial composition of charter schools is discussed. Finally, the authors offer recommendations for combating segregation in charter schools and discuss avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the teacher shortage, some states have developed special associate's degrees in teacher education. This article explores the prevalence and structure of these specialized associate's degrees and presents a case for their development to smooth the transfer pathway for community college students who wish to become teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the education of African American girls and women. It begins with a look at scholarship on African American girls and women published in The Journal of Negro Education from its inception in 1932 to the present. Subsequently, a historical overview of the long, hard-fought struggles of educating this population for empowerment and uplift of the race is provided, including a discussion of late 19th and early 20th century schools for African American girls and women and prominent African American women educators of this period. This is followed by an examination of contemporary successes and challenges including a look at the educational outcomes and experiences of African American girls and women in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions. Finally, the article concludes with recommendations for better understanding and enhancing the education of African American girls and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early laws prohibited African Americans from learning to read and write in the United States. The right to an education has produced a significant number of African American women acquiring higher education. Racial and gender diversity at the presidential level in higher education 4-year institutions appears to be changing rapidly. The data suggest that African American women have made tremendous strides in presidential appointments since the beginning of the twentieth century, but more appointments of women are needed to close the racial and gender gap at the helm of America's higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the concept of single-sex education as well as its legal viability in primary and secondary education in the U.S. It attempts to establish the constitutional and statutory framework in the establishment of a single-sex education and cites major cases that affects its legal status. Moreover, it analyzes the implication of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 on the implementation of single-sex education and presents both sides of arguments in the expansion of single-sex classes and schools. Furthermore, the article provides a framework that attempts to provide greater understanding on the debate over the implementation of single-sex education in the country.

The article presents the findings of a study of Taiwanese college students' reading habits and preferences, based on two surveys from 2004 and compared with surveys of U.S. students. The authors' intent is to quantify the amount of time spent on extracurricular reading; the reading differences between demographic groups, institution types, and college majors; and college students' preferred reading materials. They present studies of college students in Western countries to provide a base of understanding of the extracurricular reading habits of young adults. Their results are examined and presented statistically and analytically then compared to results of similar studies from the United States.

The article presents information on preparing secondary-school teachers to support student literacy in subject-area classrooms. The author explains the need for the teachers to commit both heart and mind to improve literacy and implement reading strategies in addition to teaching content. She explains the curriculum she uses with student teachers to convince them that literacy is a matter of social justice, and that their students are at a political, social, and economic disadvantage without it. The author addresses obstacles to literacy instruction in the United States, such as the entrenchment of the lecture method of teaching, the refusal to see literacy as both pedagogy and social action, and the demographic differences between teachers and students.

In recent months the United States scrutinized the reauthorization of two critical pieces of legislation--those of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Law and the No Child Left Behind Act--and disagreed on many of the issues involved in these two pieces of legislation. We believe this is an opportunity to engage in a deeper examination of the democratic freedom that allows us to become engaged in such disagreements and to probe further into this issue to address some underlying questions. As a multicultural, multilingual nation of immigrants, what is our national identity? Who are we as a people? What is our role in the world? And most importantly, how does this view affect us as educators? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the effects of school racial and ethnic composition on students' academic achievement in the U.S. using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and hierarchical linear models. This analysis includes Hispanics, which stands apart from other research in this area that has traditionally focused on only Black and White student racial composition. In addition, peer group influences are measured by utilizing the comprehensive peer network data available for all respondents in the sample. Interactions between individual race/ethnicity and school racial/ethnic composition are also tested to better understand the possible differential effects of racial/ethnic composition for each race/ethnicity. The results show that school and peer racial/ethnic composition has important effects on individual level achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the effect of U.S. population diversity on parent-teacher collaboration, especially in the educational planning for students with special needs. The author present possible barriers to parent involvement and the positive effects of parent involvement. The progressive plan outlined includes parent in the collaborative relationship from start to finish; helps teacher understand the needs of families from culturally diverse backgrounds, and includes activities designed to strengthen trust in educational professionals and the planning process for individualized education programs. Activity suggestions, important facts to remember, and additional factors for each stage of the plan's implementation are included.

This study explores the notion that mainstream and minority institutions of higher education set different expectations for successful communication in the classroom that are reflected in the cultural majority student population's communication preferences. In this study, African-American students (N = 136) perceived their instructors to be more nonverbally immediate than their Euro-American counterparts (N = 142), regardless of instructor ethnicity. Their motives to communicate with their instructors for functional, excuse-making, and sycophantic reasons were greater than those for Euro-American students. Further, instructor verbal immediacy has a significant impact on African-American students' motives to communicate with their instructors for relational and participation purposes whereas instructor verbal and nonverbal immediacy has a negative impact on Euro-American students' motives to communicate for functional purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an ongoing debate about levels of segregation, their causes, and their long-term direction. The debate is between those who, while acknowledging some role for economic forces place the emphasis for continuing segregation on discrimination and White prejudice and those who place greater emphasis on income, wealth, and residential preferences. This debate is further illuminated with a detailed analysis of African American suburbanization using a combination of data from the 2000 Census and the Current Population Survey. The analysis confirms other research that shows substantial suburban growth of African American populations. It adds to that research by showing that those African American populations who move to the suburbs have substantially more income and wealth and higher levels of education than African American populations who move within the metropolitan cores. In addition, suburban African Americans live in more integrated settings than those who live in the central city. The implications of this finding bolster the view that income does matter in residential choices for African Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter presents an overview of Florida's Accelerated Mechanism Program, identifies challenges that resulted from shifting intentions behind dual enrollment policies, and shows how evolving state policy has influenced the strategies used by one college to successfully enroll underserved students and support their transition to college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares the population of the U.S. between 1967 and 2006, based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census Bureau forecasted that the population in 2006 will reach 300 million based on their annual survey. Statistics show that in 1967, there were more children than adults, personal computers and Internet did not exist, women got a smaller share of the payroll, and the proportion of people living in poverty was slightly higher. While, in 2006 most three- to four- year-olds attend school, children are exposed to technology at home and at school, mothers are likely to be working outside the home, and households have higher incomes.

This article addresses Latino population growth in the United States and their participation in higher education, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs. The demographic and educational trends outlined here suggest that although the Latino population will continue to grow very rapidly, the participation in higher education by Latino students and faculty will not keep pace. The projected increase of school-age Latinos will increase the pool of students at the K-12 end of the educational pipeline; however, without effective interventions, the higher education end of this pipeline will remain narrow, and only a small number of Latinos with graduate degrees will be produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how student-level indicators-such as expectations for postsecondary education, academic achievement, participation in college preparatory tests, and student-parent communications- are related to postsecondary educational attainment for Black and White populations. Publicly available data for studying postsecondary attainment are described, and data from the College Board and the National Center for Education Statistics were analyzed to describe postsecondary educational attainment across ethnic groups. Following a univariate assessment of Black- White differences on potential predictors of attainment, multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine how these indicators collectively predict postsecondary attainment for Black and White students. When controlling for other predictors, gender was the strongest indicator of educational attainment among Black students, with females completing more postsecondary education than males; greater mathematics achievement and higher parental expectations were also predictive of higher postsecondary attainment. In contrast, for White students, higher student expectations and socioeconomic status (SES), along with greater mathematics achievement, were most predictive of postsecondary attainment in the full model. Substantive implications are discussed, along with design concerns for future studies of postsecondary attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter describes how the implementation of the 1996 welfare reform and the 1998 Workforce Investment Acts affected community colleges' willingness and capacity to provide access to postsecondary education and training for Latinos and other low-income populations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]