In this study, Ridgway et al. found mixed results, depending on the assessment test used. With the Balanced Assessment (BA) test, positive significant differences were found between the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) students and non-CMP students in grades 6, 7, and 8. The results for the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) were less favorable…

Hierarchical linear modeling is used to assess individual student, family, and school predictors of aggression in 111,662 students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Nine measures of problem-solving strategies, quality of family and peer interaction, and perceptions of school climate are analyzed at the individual student level. Eight measures…

Middle school students consolidate their understanding of integers and rational numbers, increasing their facility with fractions, decimals, and percents and encountering proportionality. This book shows how students can explore these important ideas in such diverse activities as exchanging currency and using area models to develop algorithms for…

Given its important role in mathematics as well as its role as a gatekeeper to future educational and employment opportunities, algebra has become a focal point of both reform and research efforts in mathematics education. Understanding and using algebra is dependent on understanding a number of fundamental concepts, one of which is the concept of…

T-algebra is a project for creating an interactive learning environment for expression manipulation tasks of elementary algebra. Our main didactical principle has been that all the necessary decisions and calculations at each solution step should be made by the student, and the program should be able to understand the mistakes. This paper…

The process used for this alignment was an abbreviated version of the alignment work and models developed by Norman L. Webb (1997, 1999, 2001, and 2002), and used in alignment studies of the Idaho state assessment system. While the full Webb alignment includes four dimensions, this study only considers two of the dimensions -- Depth of Knowledge…

The results of a large scale (N=1001) cross-sectional (Years 6, 8 and 10) study of students' ideas about the composition of unpolluted air, the nature of air pollution, the biological consequences of air pollution, and about acid rain and the Greenhouse Effect are reported. A range of persistent alternative conceptions were identified, in some…

Burgeoning research on the adolescent (e.g., middle-school) years suggests that this is a particularly vulnerable period for the development of maladaptive eating patterns. Prior research has established a link between perceptions of maternal parenting practices and adolescent onset of problematic eating behaviors. The authors hypothesized that…

Research finds that the availability of specific coping resources can alleviate the more harmful effects of stress among adolescents. Although studies have investigated the relationship between coping resources and various outcomes among general samples of youth, no research has focused on adolescents who report high personal standards in…

To examine cumulative impact of anti-smoking messages, 300+ sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at three southern, private schools completed the Youth Tobacco Survey during both fall and spring, 2001-2002. One school had tobacco lessons plus health-promotion teams, the other tobacco lessons, and the third classes as usual. In attitudes and…

This study examined reciprocal associations among adolescents' negative feedback-seeking, depressive symptoms, perceptions of friendship quality, and peer-reported social preference over an 11-month period. A total of 478 adolescents in grades 6-8 completed measures of negative feedback-seeking, depressive symptoms, friendship quality,…

As part of compliance with with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, this document presents the State Report Card of Arizona for 2009-2010. The report card provides tables relating to percentage of students who passed AIMS in Arizona by subject and grade. The tables shown in this document include: (1) Mathematics Grade 3; (2) Reading Grade 3; (3)…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of gender and grade level on students' logical thinking abilities. A total of 174 sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade students participated in the study. Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT) was administered to determine students' reasoning abilities. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance…

Judgments about the quality of students' experience of school generally focus on their academic performance and indeed this is an important indicator but closer attention needs to be paid to equally important, more broadly based outcomes that include social/emotional adjustment as they also are shown to impact on students' lives at, and beyond…

Commitment and attachment to school and perception of school norms were examined in a sample of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to determine whether bullies, victims, bully victims, and students who reported no or low levels of bullying and victimization differed in their level of bonding to school and their perceptions of standards and…