Describes the legal definitions of race discrimination in education, demonstrating how they apply in various contexts; highlighting the role of social science evidence; offering suggestions for answering complex questions about what currently counts as racial discrimination in education; and highlighting the irony that, under the current…

Examines racial disparities in education, focusing on those that might be attributable to discrimination. The paper reviews what is known about determinants of achievement and the magnitude of racial discrepancies in such achievement, discusses the most likely sources of discriminatory behaviors by teachers and by school district personnel,…

Reviews the methodologies most frequently used by social scientists when measuring discrimination in housing and labor markets, assessing their usefulness for analyzing discrimination in education. The paper focuses on standard statistical methods, methods using more complete data, experimental/audit methods, and natural experiments based on…

To investigate elementary students' school day, teachers recorded exact beginning and ending times for students' activities. Length of school day varied widely based on student and classroom characteristics. Students with longer days tended to be white and have fewer special needs. How students spent their time varied by student, family, and…

Conflict over whether Dutch standardized tests and national standards are appropriate relates to goals ascribed to student evaluation (a measurement goal for selection decisions or a pedagogical goal to support learning). Interviews with Dutch secondary teachers who worked in a context that combined national standards in the final year with…

Examines the paradox of strong individual demand and strong institutional support for the General Educational Development (GED) credential despite educational and economic returns markedly lower than those of traditional high school graduates, suggesting that the GED program is a low-cost way to integrate thousands of off-track individuals back…

Explored the crisis of respect needed to establish authority in two urban public high schools. Data from observations and interviews indicated that in classrooms, battles for respect involved defending the dominant educational regime and control over the daily regimen of pedagogical practice. In corridors, students moved between mainstream…

Examined the effects of early mathematics acceleration on the development of junior and senior high school students' mathematics attitudes and anxiety. Longitudinal Study of American Youth data indicated that for gifted and honors students, early acceleration did not necessarily confer negative emotional effects, while for regular students, it had…

Addresses issues of equity in science learning and teaching for linguistically and culturally diverse students, synthesizing major issues and research findings for effective classroom practices in the multicultural science education literature. The article offers recommendations for a research agenda that contributes to achieving the goal of…

Analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of three major approaches to U.S. teacher education reform (the professionalization, deregulation, and social justice agendas), noting that although each has contributed to improving teacher education in order to lessen the achievement gap, each has certain weaknesses that undermine this goal. There are also…

Examines the origins of the National Parent-Teacher Association, questioning its image as a white, middle class women's association; explaining its relationship to late 19th century maternalist ideology; asserting that the emphasis on woman-as-mother created tension between women volunteers and male school administrators; and investigating the…

Draws on three intensive case studies of teacher knowledge, practice, and learning among teachers of mathematics and English in two high schools in order to examine the problem of how classroom teaching practice comes to be known, shared, and developed among teachers through their out-of-classroom interactions. The article also discusses classroom…

Discusses conceptual and methodological issues arising when educational researchers use data from large-scale surveys to examine teachers' effects on student achievement. Data from a 1991-94 study show how researchers' use of different statistical models leads to widely varying interpretations about the overall magnitude of teacher effects. The…

Surveyed Arizona teachers to investigate how personal traits influenced their attitudes toward charter schools and school vouchers, also examining school- and district-level variables shaping charter school teachers' views about choice. White, experienced, unionized, democratic educators and those working in positive school environments were less…

Used surveys, interviews, site visits, and achievement data to examine one district's development of school-based communities of instructional practice to improve teaching and increase achievement. Team-based teachers felt more involved in school-related decisions and reported higher levels of collaboration with peers than non-team-based teachers.…