Introduces a symposium of the same title and its four speakers. Provides background on current attitudes on race and affirmative action in America and the role that institutions of higher education can play in improving race relations. (EV)

Describes Boston College's successful six-week summer program, "Options Through Education--Transitional Summer Program" (OTE) and its academic year follow-up program, which assists AHANA (African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American) students to successfully negotiate the university. Although the program's target students enter with…

Using Massachusetts as a case study, calls into question some of the common sense approaches to education reform and discusses how political-economic ideologies embedded in high-stakes testing adversely affect Latinos and obfuscate the growing social inequalities in U.S. society. Argues that educational opportunity programs are the missing link…

Studied school suspensions in a large metropolitan school district in which minority students were overrepresented in discipline reports. Study of suspensions at five middle schools and high schools shows inconsistent reporting of disciplinary and suspension data, making it difficult to quantify racial and class bias that appears to exist. (SLD)

In educating diverse students, the emphasis should be on what teachers do to make children succeed. Poverty and culture are not impediments to learning, but the quality of service children receive can be an impediment. (SLD)

The experiences of a seventh-grade teacher in helping female students combat sexual harassment and in establishing a school sexual harassment policy show that sexism in the schools is hard to change and that much of the trauma of adolescence is related to the system's perpetuation of male dominance. (SLD)

Summarizes social conditions along the border between Mexico and the United States, with particular attention to conditions around Laredo (Texas), and presents 1993 survey results that measured the educational and lifestyle aspirations of 251 secondary students in schools surrounding Laredo. Results reveal a large majority had optimistic attitudes…

Presents remarks from a keynote address given by the Senior Advisor for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the New England Conference on Community Service Learning (1994). The speech offers insights into the policy goals of President Clinton's Department of Education. (GR)