This article reports the results of a qualitative study designed to determine issues salient in Black and Hispanic American students' review and evaluation of program-application packets in professional psychology. The study served as an extension to the Yoshida et al. (1989) quantitative investigation. Students interested in pursuing doctoral studies in counseling or school psychology (N = 22) served as the sample. The qualitative methodology incorporated a think-aloud procedure and semistructured interviews. A theme analysis of transcribed interviews identified both major and minor themes central to participants' evaluation of the packets. Major themes included financial aid, program requirements and course descriptions, demography of the student body, and the quality and clarity of application material. Specific suggestions on developing an application packet to send to inquiring prospective students are put forth. It is recommended that such a packet could serve as a costeffective minority-recruitment strategy.In recent years, professional psychology programs have begun to devote greater emphasis to multicultural training issues. This emphasis has been reflected in increased attention to multicultural curriculum (see recent surveys by Hills & Stro-JOSEPH G. PONTEROTTO received his PhD in counseling psychology in 1985 from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Currently, he

Investigated whether doctoral-level professional psychology programs responded differently to initial requests for information from minority and nonminority applicants. A letter from a fictitious student was sent to 257 programs. Programs were randomly assigned to an ethnic condition (White, Black, or Hispanic). The minority students were more likely to receive a response than were nonminority students, and minority students received more personal forms of communication than did the nonminority student. However, the overall amount of minority recruitment information shared with applicants was the same for both minority and nonminority students. The findings suggest that few programs are using materials sent to prospective minority applicants as a method for implementing their affirmative action policy.The need to prepare professional psychologists to serve minority populations continues to grow (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1984). The Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs (BEMA) of the American Psychological Association (APA) reported that the number of ethnic minority group members in the United States is projected to grow to 25% of the United States popula-ROLAND K. YOSHIDA received his PhD from the University of Southern California in 1974. He is professor of special education at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), and educational psychology at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He was formerly Chair of the Division of Psychological and Educational Services at Fordham University. ANTHONY A. CANCELLI received his EdD from Oklahoma State University in 1976. He is currently the Coordinator of the School Psychology Program at Fordham University. JOHN SOWINSKI is a research assistant in the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University. He is an MS candidate in education, specializing in counseling and personnel services. RECKS BERNHARDT received his PhD from Syracuse University in 1971. He is currently Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University. He also served as Director of Admissions for the School.

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Purpose: School effectiveness and instructional leadership research over the past 30 years has largely concluded that principal effects on student achievement are small and indirect. It has been assumed that the principal effect is important but mediated through other school factors. Findings: This experimental study found that one-on-one discussions between a principal and a nonproficient student that focused on the student's 2008 reading score and a goal for his or her 2009 reading score had a direct and significant effect on the student's subsequent reading achievement gains on a state reading test. Students in the experimental condition who held discussions with a principal prior to the state reading test showed reading gains significantly larger than students in the control condition who had their discussions after the state reading test. The randomly assigned participants (20 in the experimental condition and 21 in the control condition) were 41 of the 66 eighth grade students who made up the entire nonproficient population of a large Article

Newspapers are considered a powerful medium for developing public opinion about issues. In a representative sample of large-city newspapers, we found that three issues--budget, expenditures, or taxes; housing or normalization; and treatment in institutions--were the most frequently featured issues about persons with disabilities. The least frequently mentioned issues were school related, such as instruction, mainstreaming, and Public Law 94-142 compliance. A suggestion was made that if articles about special education are to appear in newspapers, special educators must develop strong relationships with newspaper reporters and their editors.