New constructivist approaches to teaching and learning are at odds with much of what teachers believe. Four questionable sets of beliefs that may be obstacles to adopting a constructivist approach to teaching and learning are reviewed. Real educational reforms will require changes in many teacher ideas. (SLD)

This essay explores the complex relationship between policy talk and institutional change in educational reform. Bursts of reform rhetoric must be distinguished from long-term trends in educational practice. The case study of a comprehensive reform effort helps illustrate why some kinds of reform last and others do not. (SLD)

This 4-year study in a southern California school district examines parent involvement activities affecting about 100 families to encourage Spanish-speaking parents to participate more fully in their children's schooling. Unconventional activities validating families' social and cultural experience are more successful than conventional means of…

Tracing the history of federal education policy in the 1960s and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) reveals shared assumptions about poverty and the government's role. These assumptions made educational reform essential to the Great Society, even though the federal commitment did not become local priority. (SLD)

Reviews "The Moral Dimensions of Teaching" (J. I. Goodlad, R. Soder, and K. A. Sirotnik, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990), a collection of essays addressing the teaching vocation and the moral dimensions of the profession. These analyses ignore gender as a reason teachers do not have professional status and autonomy. (SLD)

G. S. Counts' (1889-1974) perspective on education is more relevant today than a brief review of his controversial pamphlet "Dare the School Build a New Social Order?" suggests. Counts emphasized the broad social responsibility of the educator and the need for broad preparation in education as a social study. (SLD)

The changing role of the kindergarten in U.S. educational history illustrates the ways in which educational reforms are altered as they survive. From a reform aimed at altering the relationship between school and community, kindergarten has become essentially a way to get children ready for first grade. (SLD)

Examines issues of home education since 1970 by surveying the home school movement in the broader historical context. The 20-year growth period illustrates the fluid nature of home education as a social movement. Contemporary home schooling is not closely tied to the liberal roots of home education. (SLD)

Describes the evolution of the qualitative-quantitative debate, and suggests that educational researchers learn to live with the necessary tensions resulting from accepting elements of each approach. The proposed critical educational research model is illustrated through examples that go beyond a positivist-interpretivist split. (SLD)

Considers whether ability grouping can be implemented more effectively than is typical explores the possibility of high-quality instruction in low-ability classes using data from 112 eighth- and ninth-grade ability-grouped English classes. Two examples of apparently effective instruction in low tracks are presented. (SLD)

Analysis of a panel study of 260 women at 4 colleges (women's college, coordinate of men's college, long-time coeducational college, recently coeducational college) to evaluate why alumnae of women's colleges succeed more than graduates of coeducational colleges. Role models and college activities and their effects on self-esteem are considered.…

Examines everyday events at a Canadian high school in the period between the two world wars. Interviews with former students reveal the highly structured experience, continually reconstructed by staff and student action. Male students in senior technical classes had the most control of their own educational conditions. (SLD)

Investigates the probability of attaining a baccalaureate degree for students from community colleges who transferred to a 4-year college, using data from the 1980 class of the High School and Beyond Survey (1,899 4-year students compared with 422 transfers). Probability of a degree was equivalent for both groups. (SLD)

Compares Asian and white eighth graders' performance on reading and math test scores and grades. Results indicate that the difference between these two groups can be explained by family background. Whites and Asians differed substantially in their grade performance, suggesting that cultural and behavioral differences may be an important influence.…

Analyzes the appropriateness of textual media in the construction of meaning by reviewing the psychological research on semiotics and multiple intelligences that support a broadened notion of text, and presenting findings from research on the construction of nonprint texts in disciplines other than English. It suggests that exclusively focusing on…