Search

America's unyielding academic achievement gap has been a national priority for a long time; yet, some schools have succeeded with academically disadvantaged youth. Usually, these institutions embrace a culture of success and follow an academic curriculum that is grounded in core knowledge and scholastic vocabulary. Academically disadvantaged students need school-wide programs that meet their distinct needs. These programs emphasize basic knowledge, grounded in contextual references. Students are taught to decode and comprehend domain specific and academic vocabulary. They learn skills and content that will help them achieve as successful adults. These schools are the antithesis of "mean streets." They welcome disadvantaged students and provide the intellectual and emotional tools they need to thrive, while instilling self-discipline and hope in their pupils.

Background/Context: This essay reviews recent demographic literature on school transitions. I describe how a demographic perspective, by which I mean using methods that are standard in the study of population processes, is a useful way to examine differences in access to and completion of post secondary schooling in the United States. Purpose/Objective/Focus of Study: I focus on studies that have been published in the past twenty years in the primary demographic journals. In addition, I describe several ways that a demographic perspective can inform future research on the transition to college. I provide several examples from recent studies that take this approach and review some methods and data sets that support research in this area. Research Design: This is a literature review of articles published in the primary demographic journals over the past 20 years. Conclusions/Recommendations: The existing literature on schooling published in the demographic journals is thin. The bulk of the existing studies focus on immigrant children and their advancement in school. This emphasis is quite relevant because race/ethnic differences in school progress are substantial. Missing from this literature, however, are studies that examine the role of age, timing, and the life cycle in educational attainment. This perspective offers the opportunity to apply well-developed theories and methods to the study of educational disparities. This perspective can provide useful lessons for public policy as well.

The present study compares the relations of family SES and parents' educational expectations during early adolescence with students' self-concept of ability and academic achievement in mathematics and language in two western countries, Switzerland and USA Participants were drawn from two US longitudinal samples, The Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions (1983) and the Childhood and Beyond study (1990) and a representative sample of Swiss sixth graders (2002). Results from a series of structural equation models indicate a high predictability and stability across nations indicating the broad usefulness of the model for understanding the role of parents' expectations on student's self-concepts and achievement. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

Jurors in criminal trials are instructed by the judge that they are to treat the testimony of a police officer just like the testimony of any other witness. Fact-finders are told that they should not give police officer testimony greater or lesser weight than any other witness they will hear from at trial. Jurors are to accept that police are no more believable or less believable than anyone else. Jury instructions regarding police officer testimony stand in contrast to the instructions given to jurors when a witness with a legally recognized interest in the outcome of the case has testified. In cases where witnesses have received financial assistance or plea deals for their testimony, a special instruction is given. For example, when a witness with a cooperation agreement testifies, the trial court will tell the jury that while the witness has the same obligation to tell the truth as other witnesses, the jury can consider whether the witness has an interest different from other types of witnesses and that her testimony should be considered with caution. In many jurisdictions, when a criminal defendant testifies, the jurors are told, despite the presumption of innocence, that he has a "vital" interest in the outcome of the case and that jurors can give his testimony less weight. Courts have routinely and almost universally refused to allow similar instructions for police officer testimony. Instructions highlighting that officers may be biased or have an interest in the outcome of the case are almost never given in a criminal trial. To the contrary, jurors are effectively told they must not consider the police officer's status as a police officer when considering her testimony. In many cases, however, police officers are not disinterested parties. They work hand-in-hand with prosecutors in building a case against a defendant. In undercover buy-bust stings, search warrant cases, and assault on police officers cases, police officers are not only the sole witnesses to the alleged offense, they are also invested in the outcome of the case. These cases would not exist without the police officer's involvement. These crimes--sometimes police-manufactured--are often the result of departmental interests. For example, police go out and act in an undercover capacity and claim to buy drugs or purchase sex because of the agendas that they themselves or their offices have set. Later, they may have to justify decisions they made about the selective use of limited departmental resources with arrests and convictions. Law enforcement may also be motivated by the money at stake in the civil forfeiture related to a criminal case. Recent events in Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Ferguson, Staten Island, South Carolina, and other locations have created a public dialogue on police credibility. Despite the strong interests of law enforcement, the law has treated law enforcement as impartial when, in reality, officers are in many instances "biased advocates." This Article calls for jury instructions that reflect the reality of these police officer interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recruitment and retention of subjects in cancer prevention, screening, and treatment trials is challenging, especially if subjects are low-income, from minority groups or immigrants with limited English fluency. This article describes our experiences in recruiting 530 female Filipino-American immigrants at community based organizations and churches for a randomized trial that assessed the effect of a small group educational session on breast and cervical cancer screening. We found that a personal invitation from either a female project liaison, a friend, or the Filipino project director were all successful strategies that resulted in over 80% attendance at an educational session that was offered as part of the study. Although non-attendees did not differ from attendees in demographic characteristics, they expressed significantly more barriers to participating in a health study. Attendance at the group session was a significant predictor of retention in the study. We were able to conduct telephone follow-up surveys among 88% of enrollees at 12 month follow-up and 76% at 24 month follow-up. Results and implications are discussed in the hope that they may facilitate future participation of Filipinos and other Asian immigrants in research.