This paper describes a small-scale research project undertaken in July 2007, which focused on a group of students with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) currently attending a mainstream secondary school. Three focus groups were held with students in Years 9 and 11 and with their parents in order to explore current practice on…

The intent of this action research study was to determine the effect peer coaching had on transfer of skills and content in the secondary arts classroom. Incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods, the study took place in two public high schools, one a suburban high school and the other a first ring suburban high school (close to an…

This study examines the tendency of twelfth grade students to apply to a postsecondary institution in light of their stated plans as tenth grade students. I have categorized students into three groups based on whether they had aspirations for college in the tenth grade and whether they applied to college in the twelfth grade. The three groups are…

Texas state assessment (TAKS) data in reading/English language arts and mathematics from 2006 and 2007 for AISD students enrolled in Fall 2007 were examined to find out how many students failed both tests, passed both tests, or failed one but not the other, for two consecutive years.

This report summarizes results of AISD's 2007 high school exit survey of 12th-grade students' responses about their technology usage both on and off campus.

This study assessed 43 gifted adolescent females in the United States and Germany over a 4-year period. Initially the girls were assessed during their 7th or 8th grade and again for this current study during their 11th or 12th grade. Factors that were examined included the daughters' attachment to and psychological separation from their mothers,…

This report presents results of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading and mathematics at grade 12. Results for students in the nation and, for the first time, in the 11 states that volunteered to participate in the 2009 state pilot program are reported as average scores and as percentages of students performing at…

This article addresses the inclusion of non-Catholic students in Catholic schools. It provides a brief review of the literature on inclusion and the results of a study of inclusion from the perspectives of Catholic students and Catholic teachers in four Western Canadian urban Catholic high schools. The study employed grounded theory as its…

The proportion of high school students completing a challenging core curriculum rose significantly between 1990 and 2005--from 31 percent to 51 percent--and students are doing better in their classes than their predecessors did. However, that good news is tempered by other findings in two federal reports. The performance of high school seniors on…

Research investigating patterns of intergenerational risk taking has produced evidence of increased risk taking of female adolescents compared with their mother's generation and a reduction in the traditional gap between levels of teenage male and female risk taking. The research is part of a larger, multistage project on factors affecting…

The state of mathematics and science education in South Africa is a cause for concern. This situation can be attributed, in part, to many mathematics and science teachers' limited content knowledge, ineffective teaching approaches, and unprofessional attitudes. To address these three problem areas simultaneously, a holistic model for the…

The Monitoring the Future study has provided the nation with a window into the important, but largely hidden, problem behaviors of illicit drug use, alcohol use, and tobacco use. It has provided a clearer view of the changing topography of these problems among adolescents and adults, a better understanding of the dynamics of factors that drive…

The present study was designed to investigate stability and changes in prosocial behavior and the parent and peer correlates of prosocial behavior in rural adolescents. Participants were from a rural, low SES community in the Eastern United States. The participants were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades at Time 1 and 10th, 11th, and 12th grades at Time…

To understand the co-occurrence of multiple types of violence, the authors developed a behavioral typology based on self-reports of suicidal behaviors, physical violence, and psychological abuse. Using a sample of dating adolescents from a high-risk school district, they identified five clusters of behaviors among the 1,653 students who reported…

This report describes the development of grade norms for timed-writing performance in two modes of writing: persuasive and descriptive. These norms are based on objective and automatically computed measures of writing quality in grammar, usage, mechanics, style, vocabulary, organization, and development. These measures are also used in the…