A selected, annotated list of materials that support the development of policies designed to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.

Research documents the existence of racial and ethnic health disparities. As a result, policy makers are seeking to address these disparities. This list is a starting point for building or updating a collection that supports this policy development process. It is written for health policy librarians and researchers and includes annotated recommendations for books, periodicals, government publications, and Websites. Entries for print publications are primarily from 1998 to 2003.     

The Impact of an Interest-Major Fit Signal on College Major Certainty

Research in Higher Education - Students’ choice of college major is related to their interests (Porter and Umbach in Res High Educ 47:429–449, 2006), and students whose major is...     

Preschool inclusion in the United States: a review of research from an ecological systems perspective

Using an ecological systems conceptual framework proposed by Bronfenbrenner, research on the inclusion of preschool children with disabilities in programs with typically developing children was reviewed. Drawing mainly from studies conducted in the United States, research on child characteristics (biosystem), classroom practices (microsystem), family perspectives (mesosystem), social policy (exosystem), culture (macrosystem), and changes in variables across time (chronosystem) is described. Positive developmental and behavioral outcomes occur for children with and without disabilities in inclusive settings, although as a group, children with disabilities are not as socially integrated as their typically developing peers. Parent attitudes are generally positive although they voice some concerns about inclusion. Several social policy issues within the U.S. system (e.g., enforcement of standards, fiscal issues) serve as barriers to and facilitators of implementation of preschool inclusion, and cultural variables shape the nature of inclusive classrooms as well as family access to inclusive settings.     

Comparison of Mediated Effects: A Correlation Structure Modeling Approach

A correlation structure modeling method for comparison of mediated effects is outlined. The procedure permits point and interval estimation of differences in mediator effects, and is useful with models postulating 1 or more predictor, intervening, or response variables that may also be latent constructs. The approach allows scale-free evaluation of differences in effects of any explanatory upon criterion variables transmitted via studied mediators, and is applied on data from a study of older adults with recent vision loss.     

The Promise of University-Assisted Community Schools to Transform American Schooling: A Report From the Field, 1985–2012

This article explores the university-assisted community school approach as it has been developed at the University of Pennsylvania with its school and community partners in West Philadelphia since 1985, as well as adapted nationally. The approach is grounded in John Dewey's theory that the neighborhood school can function as the core neighborhood institution that provides comprehensive services, galvanizes other community institutions and groups, and helps solve the myriad problems schools and community confront in a rapidly changing world. Building on Dewey's ideas, the authors argue that all colleges and universities should make solving the problem of the American schooling system a very high institutional priority; their contributions to its solution should count heavily both in assessing their institutional performance (by themselves and others) and be a critical factor when responding to their requests for renewed or increased resources and financial support. Providing concrete examples from over 20 years of work in West Philadelphia, as well as from initiatives across the country, this article explores the potential of developing university-assisted community schools as an effective approach for school reform, pre-Kindergarten through higher education.     

The College Selection Process:

A recent trend among universities shifts from traditional MBA programs to specialized MBA offerings. Specialized programs are believed to cultivate stronger relationships with students, which lead to stronger alumni relationships and increased donations. This research tests this empirically by examining relationship perceptions and donation behavior among alumni of both traditional and specialized MBA programs from a university. The findings suggest that graduates of specialized programs are more likely to perceive relationships with their MBA programs than their traditional program counterparts. These graduates are also more likely to donate to their universities and to direct their donations toward their specialized MBA programs.     

Narrative multiculturalism

This is the first of three papers based on a 20-month study of teaching and learning in a diverse classroom in a downtown community school in Toronto, Canada. The purpose of the study was to examine teaching and learning in a multicultural classroom and to document successful strategies in working with immigrant and minority students. The three papers detail the process by which this focus on classroom life led to a critique of the literature and to a new way to think about multicultural teaching and learning that I call 'narrative multiculturalism'. In this paper, I explore the place of multiculturalism in education and describe several limitations of the traditional ways of examining the issue. I also outline the understanding with which I began the study and describe the nature of my inquiry. I use my autobiographical experiences of multiculturalism and multicultural research to reflect on the literature of multicultural education. The narrative of my relationship with a teacher participant provides a conceptualization of the field and suggests the nature of narrative multiculturalism.