Minority Groups

Internet Sites:

• Losing Our Future: How Minority Youth are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis
In an effort to highlight racial and socioeconomic disparities in schools, this report examines the high school graduation rate, focusing specifically on statistics as they relate to race and socio-economic status. Published by The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University with contributions from The Urban Institute and Advocates for Children of New York, The Civil Society Institute.
http://www.resultsforamerica.org/calendar/files/1Losing%20Our%20Future%20-%20Main%20Report.pdf

• Diversity: School, Family, and Community Connections
“This synthesis focuses specifically on three categories: race or ethnicity, culture (including language), and socioeconomic status. The report also explores barriers to involvement for minority and low-income families, strategies that have been used to address those barriers, and recommendations that local educational leaders can adapt to address their specific needs.” Produced by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/diversity-synthesis.pdf

• Unique Strengths, Shared Strengths: Developmental Assets Among Youth of Color
From the Search Institute, this publication presents research on developmental assets, which are positive factors in young people, families, communities, schools, and other settings that have been found to be important in promoting young people’s healthy development.
http://www.search-institute.org/research/Insights/InsightsEvidence-11-03.pdf

• A Multiracial Society with Segregated Schools: Are We Losing the Dream?
“This report describes patterns of racial enrollment and segregation in American public schools at the national, regional, state, and district levels for students of all racial groups.” The study was conducted by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/reseg03/reseg03_full.php

• Minority Student Achievement Network
The Minority Student Achievement Network is an unprecedented national coalition of 15 multiracial, suburban school districts across the United States. The Network’s mission is to discover, develop, and implement the means to ensure high academic achievement for students of color, specifically African American and Latino students. Website includes links to articles and related organizations.
http://www.msanetwork.org/research.asp

• The Stigma of Inclusion: Racial Paternalism/Separatism In Higher Education
Noble statements for bringing to campus a diverse population are contradicted by on-campus segregation that is college-sponsored in housing, counseling, orientation, and academic offerings. Research indicates that the colleges are strongly committed to ethnic separatism/pluralism rather than to the melting pot, integration model of education students.
http://www.nycivilrights.org/reports/pdfs/nycrc_campusreport.pdf

• Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment
“Models of student achievement indicate that a one-year assignment to an own-race teacher significantly increased the math and reading achievement of both black and white students by roughly three to four percentile points.” Full report available as pdf document.
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8432

• Raising Minority Academic Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices
“This report is the culmination of a detailed, two-year effort to find, summarize and analyze evaluations of school and youth programs that show gains for minority youth across a broad range of academic achievement indicators.” Published by the American Youth Policy Forum and available as a pdf document.
http://www.aypf.org/publicatons/raisingminorityaca.pdf

• Overlooked and Underserved: Immigrant Students in Secondary Schools (December 2000)
“This report focuses in particular on two subpopulations of immigrant children that pose special challenges to secondary schools but have received little attention. One subpopulation is immigrant teens who arrive in the U.S. school system with significant gaps in their schooling. The second subpopulation is students from language minority homes who have been in U.S. schools longer, but have yet to master basic language and literacy skills.”
http://www.urban.org/immig/overlooked2001.html

• United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Teaching Materials
Aimed to provide primary and secondary school teachers with ready-made and fully-detailed unit and lesson plans which incorporate refugee issues into the curriculum.
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/template/+7wLFq7p1xceUh5cTPeUzknwBoqeRDxxwqroDte2Dlmdc5eRl3mmnLeIybnM

• Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS)
Excerpt – “The CLAS Institute identifies, evaluates, and promotes effective and appropriate early intervention practices and preschool practices that are sensitive and respectful to children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.” Funded by the Office of Special Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education.
http://clas.uiuc.edu/

• Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies
The nation’s only museum and library dedicated to collecting and interpreting materials drawn from America’s ethnic, racial, and immigrant experiences.
http://www.balchinstitute.org

• ERIC Digest – Enacting Diverse Learning Environments: Improving the Climate for Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education (1999)
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed430513.html

• ERIC Digest – Critical Behaviors and Strategies for Teaching Culturally Diverse Students (1999)
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed435147.html

• ERIC Digest – Minorities in Science and Math (1999)
http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed433216.html