Suburban Students Research Articles

Where Have All the Strong Poets Gone?

The approaches that are being touted as ways to improve our poorest schools are themselves impoverished, Mr. Jones finds. He urges educators to take stand against the current policies and to muster the imagination to devise true solutions. ********** JONATHAN Kozol's latest book, The Shame of the Nation, documents the landscapes of the two education systems in America. One system is located in the suburbs, where mostly white students sit in classrooms with teachers who possess the content knowledge to construct engaging lessons that accurately reflect the content and structure of the discipline that they teach. The breadth and depth of the curriculum in these suburban schools provide students with the knowledge and skills to do well in postsecondary settings. In addition, these suburban schools have sprawling campuses that possess all the accoutrements of Ivy League universities--a high-quality library, computer labs with the latest technology, state-of-the-art science labs, and rich variety of support services that will enhance the social and emotional development of young people. At the same time that white suburban students are being prepared to become the future bosses in our country, African American and Hispanic students sit in classrooms with young, inexperienced teachers whose minimal training in their content areas leaves them with little ability to construct lessons that will adequately prepare students for postsecondary schooling. Instead of being offered engaging lessons that reflect state-of-the-art approaches to curriculum and instruction, students in our urban and rural areas are subjected to an instructional program that Kozol calls a test-preparation camp. Inductees in this camp are expected to listen to scripted lessons, complete practice test-preparation exercises, and take an endless stream of tests. The facilities in these boot camps are as deplorable as the instructional program. Students sit in classrooms without windows, go to bathrooms that do not function, and work in labs without chemicals or specimens. Why has the resegregation of our nation's schools into two systems--one poor and urban and one well-off and suburban--remained unnoticed by the public and our policy makers? The parents of poor urban students do not possess the political or economic capital to generate outrage at, or sometimes even awareness of, the dilapidated buildings and dead-end curriculum that their children are subjected to every day. Suburban parents, who do possess the political and economic power to call attention to the deplorable conditions in our urban schools, remain silent simply because they have the schools they want. White suburban schools, especially the elite white suburban schools, have it all--why talk of funding formulas and social policies that would require wealthier parents to share the resources that are currently being lavished on their children? As for state and national policy makers, they have diverted attention away from the deep political, social, and economic forces that have conspired to segregate our schools, our neighborhoods, and the futures of our children by using the high-sounding rhetoric of equal educational opportunities for all children--all children can learn and no child left behind--and the vocabulary of business accountability measures--test, inspect, and reconstitute. The relentless use of vocabulary of equality married to whole host of school accountability measures has proven to be potent strategy for dodging the thorny policy issues that might actually develop the conditions that no child left behind was meant to achieve--equal-funding formulas, scattered site housing, universal health care, and high-quality child-care system. The cruelty of this policy shell game is to punish the schools that serve the poor and voiceless in our society and to reward the schools that serve the wealthiest and most powerful. …

Effective Teaching/Effective Urban Teaching

This article considers the ways in which 17 novice teachers define and describe effective urban teaching and the stark contrasts that these teachers draw between effective urban teaching and effective teaching. The authors find that descriptions of students played a considerable role when participants made distinctions between effective teaching and effective urban teaching. These teachers defined the two types of teaching largely in terms of perceived behaviors, beliefs, and characteristics of urban and suburban students that were chiefly based on monolithic group stereotypes and in the case of students of color, were deficit laden.

Reading The Friendship and Talking About Race

This study documents literature discussions between groups of teacher education students in two geographically and demographically different universities. Students from an education methods course at each site discussed The Friendship by Mildred Taylor with one another as part of a distance reader response project. The project was designed to promote discussion of multicultural historical fiction among and between urban students of color at one site and mainly White suburban students from the second site. Additional goals include increasing computer literacy as prospective teachers access the WebCT online course management system and have regular conversations in this medium.

Understanding Differences in Marijuana Use Among Urban Black and Suburban White High School Students from Two U.S. Community Samples

To examine community/racial differences in adolescent marijuana use and the variations in factors underlying the observed differences, a questionnaire survey study was conducted with 9th to 12th graders (n = 1,936) from two communities in New Jersey. Marijuana use was significantly higher among suburban (mostly White) students than among their urban (mostly Black) counterparts. Significant differences in marijuana use between the two community sub-samples were explained by differences in type of risk factors, mean number of risk factors, and the strength of the association (slopes) between risk factors and marijuana use. Social-environmental factors (including positive after-school activities and negative peer influences) and, to a lesser degree, family factors (including family income, parental and sibling drug use), accounted for most community/racial differences in marijuana use

Socio-demographic factors of pupils who use tobacco in randomly-selected primary schools in Nairobi Province, Kenya

To report the prevalence and socio-economic correlates of tobacco use among primary school pupils in Nairobi, Kenya. Cross-sectional school-based survey. Ten primary schools in Nairobi, Kenya. A questionnaire was administered to 1198 primary school pupils aged 12 to 17 years and 1130 (response rate 94.3%) students responded under supervision in the classroom. A total of 31% (95% CI 27.5-34.5) had experimented with smoking, 9% (95% CI 7.1-11.5) with smokeless tobacco and 55% (95% CI 50.7-59.6) reported having friends who smoked. The rates of lifetime smoking were statistically significantly higher in urban than in suburban students (33% versus 25%, p<0.05), whereas a higher proportion of suburban residents reported lifetime use of smokeless tobacco (8 % versus 12 %, p<0.05). Among urban as well as suburban students, 15 years and above were significantly more likely than their counterparts aged 14 years and below to report lifetime smoking, lifetime use of smokeless tobacco, fathers' use of tobacco, and friend's tobacco use. The adjusted odds ratios, OR, and 95% confidence intervals, 95% CI, for students ever smoking were 2.2 (95% CI 1.3-1.8), 2.4 (95 % CI 1.6-3.7), 1.8 (95 % CI 1.1-3.2 and 2.6 (95 % CI 1.7-4.1) for place of residence, gender, age and friend's use of tobacco. Generally, the proportions of primary pupils using different forms of tobacco were low in Nairobi province, although the proportion of pupils who had smoked at least once in their lifetime amounted to 31%. Since primary school pupils live in an environment that makes them susceptible to smoking, preventive programmes should be introduced to avoid the development of nicotine addiction and regular smoking.

A Tale of Two Children

David and Anne, two children Mr. Shoemaker knows very well, come from the same home but have different sets of abilities. Unfortunately, the schools do not seem to be able to accommodate both. By David Shoemaker THIS IS THE story of two children and their experiences in the public school system in Georgia. Their experiences are vastly different. For one, it was the best of times; for the other, the worst of times. This is the story of my children. Let me begin by saying that I am currently in my 33rd year as a professional educator. I have been a community college biology professor; a principal of elementary, middle, and high schools; and a university professor and department chair. My wife is also an educator. She has been a public school teacher for 22 years. Ten years ago, I would have considered the demand for higher standards, with its emphasis on testing, to be a perfectly logical approach to raising the achievement of students in our schools. At this stage of my life and career, however, I have very serious reservations. Let me explain my dilemma by describing the experiences of my two children in the public schools. David's Story David's experience in the public schools was for the most part very positive, despite the fact that he, like many boys, was not ready for the first grade. He was simply too young to start school. His birthday is in October, and he was very immature. He struggled, and I was told that his performance was mediocre. When he started school, he was still lagging behind his peers. But David was lucky. His fourth-grade teacher was very interested in science and mathematics and stimulated his interest in these subjects. David matured socially and began to test well. In middle school, he recorded the highest score in his school system on the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test. David was a success in his studies from that time on. He attended a high school that was one of the very best in Georgia. It operated very much like a private school. He was recognized as an outstanding student and was placed in a gifted program. David participated in athletics and was on the swimming and tennis teams. Along with his friends, he competed in academic competitions. He would have been a parent's dream of a model child, except he occasionally exhibited reckless behavior and had a knack for getting himself into trouble in creative ways. At times we wondered whether he would survive to finish high school. But he did. David earned an academic scholarship to an outstanding engineering school. He has since completed a Ph.D. program and is now a professor of genetics. I did not know how fortunate David was to be academically gifted until his sister Anne came along. Even though I worked with other people's children every day, I didn't really understand what it takes just to enable some children to negotiate the public schools. I had freely given advice to parents on ways to provide more support at home. But, until I worked with Anne, I never knew how much effort -- parental and otherwise -- is required for some students to succeed. Anne's Story We adopted Anne as a newborn. She is now 13 years old and is blossoming into a beautiful young lady who is extremely active and has a very short attention span. Anne has experienced a great deal of difficulty in a traditional school setting. The school she attends is a recently opened middle school that serves middle-class suburban students, and the expectations of her teachers appear to be quite high. Almost every day Anne comes home with homework from her four academic teachers. Although this homework might have required little time from David, it takes Anne much longer. Her mother is very conscientious and wants Anne to do well in her studies. And so she and I both put in much time and effort (including scolding, cajoling, bribing, and praising) to ensure that Anne completes her assignments. …

Perceptions of University Students Regarding the Digital Divide

This article examines university student perceptions based on area of residence (urban, suburban, and rural) of the digital divide. The results show a medium effect size for the difference in means between the number of times per week urban students access the Internet compared to suburban and rural students. In addition, a medium effect size was found for the difference in means between the perceptions of the students with respect to the item that access to the library can be improved via the Internet in rural areas. Furthermore, the results indicate that there is a medium effect size for the difference in means between the perceptions of the students with regard to the item that social service applications of the Internet are crucial in rural areas. The results also show that students equally perceive the item that rural areas are being left behind with respect to the information superhighway.

The Effect of Personal/Social Skills Lessons: The Missing Link in Prevention Curricula on Urban Middle School Student Tobacco Use

A 2-year controlled study was conducted with urban and suburban middle school students to test the effect of a series of personal and social skill development lessons on behavior and behavioral intentions related to tobacco use. The intervention involved six lessons taught in the seventh grade and five lessons taught in the eighth grade. Although control group students demonstrated significant increases in number of cigarettes smoked, quantity of chewing tobacco/snuff used, combined use of alcohol and tobacco, and intention to use tobacco when older, experimental group students to whom the lessons were presented with fidelity showed no such expected increases. There were no significant findings on an intention-to-treat basis. The results of this study suggest that Personal/Social Skills Lessons: The Missing Link in Prevention Curricula, when taught with fidelity, provides students with skills to resist the uptake of certain health-compromising behaviors. The results also suggest that in further study of the lessons' efficacy, more rigorous teacher in-service training and classroom monitoring may be necessary to ensure that the lessons are implemented appropriately.

Muted Dialogues: Seeking a Discourse for Preparing to Teach across Race, Class, and Language

Notes that it has not been easy to find a discourse to address the ways that unexamined attitudes about race, class, language, and gender perpetuate failure in schools. Describes briefly the work of the Committee on English Education’s Commission on Teacher Education for Teachers of Urban, Rural, and Suburban Students of Color and the attempts to publish its report.

The Development of Prejudice and Sex Role Stereotyping in White Adolescents and White Young Adults

White male and female predominantly suburban students in grades 7, 9, 11, and college were given questionnaires that assessed sex-role stereotyping, prejudice against gay males and lesbians, persons with the HIV or AIDS virus, and African Americans. On all measures at all ages, males were more prejudiced and sex-role stereotyped than females. Gay and lesbian prejudice declined with increasing age; race prejudice remained relatively stable during high school, but increased in college; whereas HIV/AIDS prejudice remained relatively flat with increasing age. No systematic age-related patterns of prejudice change were observed. Male and female sex-role stereotyping were positively and equally correlated with all four types of prejudice. Additionally, with the exception of gay and lesbian prejudice, intercorrelations among prejudice types were approximately the same. These findings support the view that a characteristic of intolerance for deviations from social norms underlies commonalities of stereotyping and prejudice in adolescence.

Assessing the Effects of School-Based Drug Education: A Six-Year Multilevel Analysis of Project D.A.R.E.

A randomized longitudinal field experiment was conducted to estimate the short- and long-term effects of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (D.A.R.E.) on students' attitudes, beliefs, social skills, and drug use behaviors. Students from urban, suburban, and rural schools (N = 1,798) were followed for more than six years, with surveys administered each year from 6th through 12th grades. Teachers were also surveyed annually to measure students' cumulative exposure to supplemental (post-D.A.R.E.) drug education. Multilevel analyses (random-effects ordinal regression) were conducted on seven waves of posttreatment data. The results indicate that D.A.R.E. had no long-term effects on a wide range of drug use measures, nor did it show a lasting impact on hypothesized mediating variables, with one exception. Previously documented short-term effects had dissipated by the conclusion of the study. Some D.A.R.E.-by-community interactions were observed: Urban and rural students showed some benefits, whereas suburban students experienced small but significant increases in drug use after participation in D.A.R.E.

Prevalence and impact of exposure to interpersonal violence among suburban and urban middle school students

Prevalence and impact of exposure to interpersonal violence among suburban and urban middle school students

Availability of Extracurricular and Cultural Opportunities for Rural Middle Level Gifted Students1

The two studies presented in this paper examine the level of resources available to middle level gifted students in rural settings. Study one involved 235 middle level gifted students in eight states and compared the opportunities available to rural and suburban students, including cultural (e.g., access to museums, art exhibits, theatre), athletic, and other extracurricular activities. Differences between availability of opportunities for rural and suburban students were quite small. Study one suggested that assumptions that rural gifted students have fewer cultural opportunities and experiences than suburban students may lack validity. Study two, involving 210 middle schools in Maine, compares the level of extracurricular and academic resources available in schools with gifted programs to resources in schools without such programs. Results suggest that rural gifted students with access to gifted programs have greater access to activities and resources, especially athletic teams and late-model computers. Collectively, the results suggest that lack of opportunity is not an inherent rural trait, but that disparity exists within rural American schools. Possible causes of this disparity, including population and funding differences, should be the focal point of future research.

Participation In Supervised Agricultural Experience Programs: A Synthesis Of Research

The objectives of this investigation were to synthesize research related to participation in supervised agricultural experience (SAE) programs and to identify areas of deficiency in SAE-related research. Findings showed that research in this area was primarily descriptive, survey, and nonprogrammatic. They revealed that SAE programs lacked definition, focus, and direction. No empirical studies were found to suggest that SAE programs were educationally beneficial, warranting student participation. Teacher attitudes and expectations strongly influence SAE participation. While teachers claim to support the concept of SAE, many fail to implement the programs fully, resulting in decreased participation by students. Participation varies widely by state, is demographically dependent, and is lacking by all parties. Future research in this area should be directed toward determining the empirical value of SAEs, their purpose and design, contributing factors to participation variance, factors which aid and/or limit participation, methods to create interest in SAEs, benefits for higher-achievers, factors which influence teachers to support SAEs, the role of record keeping, and type of SAE programs which would appeal to urban and suburban students.

Reliability of Children's Self-Esteem Assessment: What I Think about Myself

The reliability coefficients for the What I Think About Myself were computed in a test-retest design for 277 suburban elementary students. For all students rtt was .93. For Grades 1 through 5 significant values ranged from .75 to .96.

Depression and substance use in two divergent high school cultures: A quantitative and qualitative analysis

Research has generally concluded that adolescent depression and substance use are strongly interrelated, but has rarely considered how this relationship may vary across diverse populations. In this study, we used quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the relationships among depression and cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and harder drug use across two culturally disparate environments: a suburban and an inner-city high school. Our sample included 164 suburban and 242 inner-city high school students. The students completed Kovacs' Children's Depression Inventory of 1985 and substance use measures derived from various sources. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with subjects who scored in the top 10% of the CDI (N=19) from both schools. Our quantitative findings indicated a positive association between depression and cigarette, marijuana, and harder drug use among the suburban students, and no association between depression and the use of any substances for the urban students. There were no significant differences in levels of reported depression across samples. However, with the exception of marijuana use, suburban students reported greater involvement in substance use than urban students. Our qualitative analyses suggest that across-school differences in the relationships among depression and substance use may be related to the varied meanings of depression and substance use that are informed by cultural context.

Self-Perceived Strengths in Leadership Abilities between Suburban and Rural Gifted Students Using the Leadership Strengths Indicator

In a comparison made between 49 rural and 98 suburban gifted high school students no significant differences in self-perceived leadership potential were found; however, leadership training was recommended for both groups as their scores could probably be increased.

The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents: Scale development and educational correlates

Este articulo analiza el desarrollo y la validacion de una medida de la pertenencia percibida o la pertenencia psicologica de los estudiantes adolescentes al entorno escolar.

Geography and Mutual Understanding: “Harvest of Hope”

Abstract The “Harvest of Hope” was an interdisciplinary science/geography project that provided students from two different schools and very diverse backgrounds the opportunity to work in a cooperative community service effort. With teacher coordination from both districts involved in the project, students from an inner-city school and a suburban school planted, tended, and harvested crops on unused school property and donated the food to organizations providing resources to the needy. “Harvest of Hope” was designed to aid the needy of Denver and teach high school students about real-world geography issues. Students also gained knowledge of issues inherent in world agriculture and the group problem-solving process. From a social perspective, inner-city students and suburban students had the opportunity to interact and gain an appreciation for cultural diversity. Most importantly, students learned through this project to think globally, but act on a local level.

Students' Alternative Conceptions of Earth and Space

A questionnaire including several possible alternative conceptions in the earth and space sciences was administered to 1,213 students in a cross-age study. Twenty common alternate conceptions are identified from distracters which were chosen at least twice as often as the least-chosen distracter for a particular question. The common alternative conceptions fall into three groups. Primary alternative conceptions are defined as those which were chosen more often than the scientifically acceptable conception. Secondary conceptions are defined as those which were chosen less often than the scientifically acceptable conception. Functional alternative conceptions are defined as those which could interfere with one's ability to function in society. Data from the study verified that the holding of alternative conceptions in the earth and space sciences is widespread. The holding of such conceptions was found to occur with great regularity in both genders, in all racial groups, among urban and suburban students, a...