Family Size And Achievement

The children born since the end of the postwar baby boom are the first in American history to come primarily from small families—families of three or fewer children. Judith Blake calls this momentous change the sibsize revolution, and this book focuses on the cognitive and educational consequences to children of families of different sizes. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.

The children born since the end of the postwar baby boom are the first in American history to come primarily from small families—families of three or fewer children. Judith Blake calls this momentous change the sibsize revolution, and this book focuses on the cognitive and educational consequences to children of families of different sizes. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.

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Based on the presentations and discussions from a national symposium on family-school links held at the Pennsylvania State University, this volume brings together psychologists, sociologists, educators, and policymakers studying the bidirectional effects between schools and families. This topic -- the links between families and schools, and how these affect children's educational achievement -- encompasses a host of questions, each of key social and educational significance. * How far does parental involvement in schools affect children's experiences and achievement at school? * What explains the great differences between schools, families, and communities in the extent of such involvement? * Are these differences a matter of school practices, or do they reflect much broader social and cultural divisions? * What is the nature of the impact schools have on children and their families? * How can family-school-partnerships be fostered in a way that helps children? The chapter authors consider these questions and related issues, present different perspectives, highlight various aspects of the issues, and suggest widely differing answers. This volume's goal is to provide the reader with current information on what is known about family-school-community links, and to provoke new ways of thinking about these links and their implications for children's education and well-being.

Many people grow up with at least one sibling. These siblings are often ‘fellow travellers’ through adversity or significant life events; they can act as a source of support for some children while a source of conflict for others. For these reasons, siblings are a potentially powerful influence on development and this book is one of the first of its kind to provide an overview of cutting-edge psychological research on this important relationship. Why Siblings Matter is a cornerstone text on siblinghood. Integrating findings from a 10 year longitudinal study alongside wider research, it provides a lifespan perspective examining the impact of sibling relationships on children’s development and well-being. This text situates siblings in their historical, developmental and family context, considers the influence of siblings on children’s development and adjustment, and provides an introduction to new research on siblings in diverse contexts. The authors discuss sibling relationships in varied populations such as siblings with disabilities, siblings in different cultures and siblings in non-traditional families, while also considering the practical implications of research. Covering both classical studies and new results this book offers take-home messages for promoting positive sibling interactions. It will be invaluable reading for students and researchers in developmental psychology and family studies and professionals in education, health and social work.

The "nature versus nurture" controversy dates back to at least the nineteenth century. How much of a role does genetics or environment play in accounting for reasoning skill and other intellectual aptitudes? At a time when the public school system in the United States is under attack, this debate has taken center stage in arguments about what accounts for differences in academic achievement. Maximizing Intelligence convincingly argues that, while both genetics and environment play a role in a child's intelligence, environmental factors, especially at an early age, are of primary importance. Working from this premise, Armor suggests how intelligence may be heightened. Armor presents four propositions about intelligence. His first is that intelligence exerts a major influence on educational and occupational success, following a chronological sequence, from a child's cognitive skills learned before school, to academic success during the school years, to eligibility for college. His second proposition is that intelligence can be changed, at least within limits. There is ample evidence that a child's intelligence is not fully given at birth, but continues to evolve and change at least through the early elementary school years, although at a declining rate. Proposition three is that intelligence is influenced by a series of "risk factors," and most of the influence occurs before a child reaches school age. Risk factors include parent intelligence and education, family income, family structure and size, nutrition, and specific parenting behaviors. The fourth proposition flows from the second and third--that the most promising avenues for maximizing intelligence come from a child's parents. Armor persuasively argues for a "whole family" approach whereby government programs are modified or created to inform parents of risk factors and to reward behaviors that optimize positive outcomes. Maximizing Intelligence is meticulously researched

Working mothers, broken homes, poverty, racial or ethnic background, poorly educated parents—these are the usual reasons given for the academic problems of poor urban children. Reginald M. Clark contends, however, that such structural characteristics of families neither predict nor explain the wide variation in academic achievement among children. He emphasizes instead the total family life, stating that the most important indicators of academic potential are embedded in family culture. To support his contentions, Clark offers ten intimate portraits of Black families in Chicago. Visiting the homes of poor one- and two-parent families of high and low achievers, Clark made detailed observations on the quality of home life, noting how family habits and interactions affect school success and what characteristics of family life provide children with "school survival skills," a complex of behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge that are the essential elements in academic success. Clark's conclusions lead to exciting implications for educational policy. If school achievement is not dependent on family structure or income, parents can learn to inculcate school survival skills in their children. Clark offers specific suggestions and strategies for use by teachers, parents, school administrators, and social service policy makers, but his work will also find an audience in urban anthropology, family studies, and Black studies.

One of the most disturbing problems in American education today is the unequal achievement of children in schools. Few problems have sparked greater concern than the issue of why students from different social origins differ so significantly in their academic performance. This book explores the role played by families and schools in this troubling problem. It employs a social constructionist approach in considering how ascribed characteristics (race, gender, and class) intersect with the daily interactions of teachers and students in classrooms and with the educational practices and structures within schools (tracking, testing, and teacher expectations) to play an exacting role in the construction of success or failure. It suggests that the new student identity that begins to emerge as a result of these processes provides a self-fulfilling prophesy of expectation and belief, which defines how students see themselves as learners and achievers. Through these practices, schooling becomes a crucial factor in the social construction of academic success. The author's final conclusion is inescapable: unequal achievement in school is largely a social construction. But it is a social construction facilitated both by student attributes including gender, race, and class and by the educational structures and policies some schools employ. Because of this undeniable fact, parents, educational practitioners, and policy makers must continue to investigate social policies and practices relative to student abilities and make every effort to understand how they may be related to achievement. Informed by research, they must endeavor to see this power inherent in schooling and the need to effect change.