This survey of sexual practices in the United States has been combed by the media for items of interest to the public: monogamous sex is much more widespread in this country than has been thought; infidelity is less frequent than presumed; vaginal intercourse is the defining experience of heterosexual behavior; watching one's partner undress is stimulating to many people; married couples have more sex than single people (unmarried, cohabiting couples have the most sex of all); the majority of couples experience sex twice a week to several times a month; 2.8% of men identify themselves as homosexual and 1.4% of women do so, but a higher percentage of people consider a same-gender experience to have some appeal; 75% of men always experience orgasm compared with 28.6% of women, but more nearly equal numbers of men and women declare themselves satisfied with their sexual experiences. The book is, in fact, a

The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States

Scientific Research in Education

Researchers, historians, and philosophers of science have debated the nature of scientific research in education for more than 100 years. Recent enthusiasm for "evidence-based" policy and practice in educationa "now codified in the federal law that authorizes the bulk of elementary and secondary education programsa "have brought a new sense of urgency to understanding the ways in which the basic tenets of science manifest in the study of teaching, learning, and schooling. Scientific Research in Education describes the similarities and differences between scientific inquiry in education and scientific inquiry in other fields and disciplines and provides a number of examples to illustrate these ideas. Its main argument is that all scientific endeavors share a common set of principles, and that each fielda "including education researcha "develops a specialization that accounts for the particulars of what is being studied. The book also provides suggestions for how the federal government can best support high-quality scientific research in education.

Why have the established institutional forms of schooling been so stable and why did most challenges fade or become marginalized? We approach these questions by probing a few case studies of reform, some that lasted to become part of the grammar of schooling and some that did not. We begin by exploring the origins of two enduring institutional forms, the graded school and the Carnegie unit. Next we analyze the history of three transient attacks on the grammar of schooling: the Dalton Plan, the Eight-Year Study, and the new model flexible high school of the 1960s. In each case political and institutional perspectives inform our interpretations. Finally, we reflect on what the case studies suggest about the nature of institutional continuity and change and offer some policy implications for reform today.

The “Grammar” of Schooling: Why Has it Been so Hard to Change?

This paper exploits a new source of variation in Head Start funding to identify the programs effects on health and schooling In 1965 the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) provided technical assistance to the 300 poorest counties in the US to develop Head Start funding proposals The result was a large and lasting discontinuity in Head Start funding rates at the OEO cutoff for grant-writing assistance, but no discontinuity in other forms of federal social spending We find evidence of a large negative discontinuity at the OEO cutoff in mortality rates for children ages 5-9 from causes that could be affected by Head Start, but not for other mortality causes or birth cohorts that should not be affected by the program We also find suggestive evidence for a positive effect of Head Start on educational attainment in both the 1990 Census, concentrated among those cohorts born late enough to have been exposed to the program, and among respondents in the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988

Does Head Start Improve Children's Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

1. Education and social change: Massachusetts as a case study 2. Trends in school attendance in nineteenth-century Massachusetts 3. From apron strings to ABCs: school entry in nineteenth-century Massachusetts 4. The prospects of youth: school leaving in eight Essex County towns 5. From one room to one system: the importance of rural-urban differences in nineteenth-century Massachusetts schooling 6. Education and social change in two nineteenth-century Massachusetts communities 7. Trends in educational funding and expenditures 8. The politics of educational reform in mid-nineteenth-century Massachusetts 9. Conclusion: the triumph of a state school system.

Education and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts

Representing new approaches to the study of the family and historical demography, this collection of essays analyzes the relationships of demographic processes in different population groups to household structure and family organization, and their implications for family behavior. Emphasizing dynamic rather than structural factors, the essays thus move beyond earlier studies of family history. Essays by the editors, Richard Easterlin, George Alter, Gretchen Condran, and Stanley Engerman focus on patterns of fertility in relation to urban and industrial development, economic opportunity and the availability of land, and race and ethnic origin. The remaining essays, by Laurence Glasco, Howard Chudacoff, and John Modell, deal with family organization over time as affected by such factors as the practice of boarding, the role of kin, family budgeting strategy, and migration. The authors not only challenge the prevailing assumption that rapid urbanization is responsible for the decline in the fertility rate; they also contend that, contrary to the prevailing theories of social change, the emergence of nuclear households was not a consequence of industrialization. Originally published in 1978. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Family and population in nineteenth-century America

Distinguished historian and policy analyst Maris Vinovskis examines federal K - 12 education policies, beginning with the publication of "A Nation at Risk" and focusing on the "National Education Goals", "America 2000", "Goals 2000", and "No Child Left Behind". In addition to discussing key policy debates, he also addresses the practical aspects of implementing and evaluating school and classroom reforms, drawing on his unique experiences working in the Department of Education during both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

From A Nation at Risk to No Child Left Behind: National Education Goals and the Creation of Federal Education Policy

Education and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts.

As a first step toward an assessment of the Civil Wars influence this article explores its demographic impact. By looking at the number of Union and Confederate soldiers who died and comparing the results with mortality in other wars one can gauge the magnitude of the Civil War. Having established that a very high proportion of military-age white males fought and died in the Civil War the article considers how the peculiarities of that conflict may have affected the participants wartime experiences. Then preliminary results from an in-depth study of Newburyport Massachusetts during the Civil War are used to sketch the social and economic background of those who fought and died in that conflict. Finally the article examines the impact of the Civil War on the survivors. Given the paucity of research on the influence of the Civil War on the postwar lives of ordinary Americans I offer a preliminary demographic analysis of the federal pension program using aggregate statistics as one indication of the type of studies that might be done. (EXCERPT)

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Maris A. Vinovskis

Papers

Education and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts

Family and population in nineteenth-century America

From A Nation at Risk to No Child Left Behind: National Education Goals and the Creation of Federal Education Policy

Education and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts.

Have Social Historians Lost the Civil War? Some Preliminary Demographic Speculations