The purposes of this study were to determine physical education activity preferences of 9th grade students in a southern California school district and to compare preferences by ethnicity. Results indicated that basketball, football, bowling, softball/baseball, swimming, and volleyball were the most preferred activities. These preferences may be…

Many students with disabilities entering the 9th grade express concern about getting lost in the larger high school environment, being picked on by older students, and having more challenging academic classes. The transition from middle-to-high school process for students with disabilities at Westminster High School in suburban Los Angeles is a…

In this study, the authors conducted a mixed analysis of student perceptions of their best high school teachers. The sample of 257 preservice teachers from a College of Education in California described their best high school teacher. From their descriptions, qualitative analysis through the method of constant comparison yielded eight themes:…

The transition into high school is a critical point in the educational pipeline, and ninth-grade can be characterized as one of its leakiest junctures. This policy brief examines how some states and districts are currently easing the transition into high school for students. It focuses on five key challenges that states, districts and schools…

In this report we focus on the use of propensity score methodology in multisite studies of the effects of educational programs and practices in which both treatment and control conditions are enacted within each of the schools in a sample, and the assignment to treatment is not random. A key challenge in applying propensity score methodology in…

This article contains an analysis of a component of a large-scale reform effort in an urban school district that entailed placing high school students identified as underperforming in literacy in separate classes aimed at accelerating their learning. The relationship between students academic performance and social backgrounds, school…

This instructional bulletin was prepared to assist teachers in planning and presenting the sequence of mathematics topics to slow learners. The course is designed to fulfill the high school graduation requirement of one semester of mathematics in the ninth grade. This course combines simple presentations of topics from modern mathematics with new…

IN TEACHING THE SLOW LEARNER, LITTLE USE SHOULD BE MADE OF READING AND BOOK STUDY. THESE PUPILS HAVE TROUBLE IN DEFINING, DISTINGUISHING, ANALYZING, AND MEMORIZING, AND ARE LOW IN ACHIEVEMENT, DOMINANCE, IMAGINATION, AND CURIOSITY. THEIR ACTIVITIES SHOULD BE SIMPLE, WITH EMPHASIS ON THE CONSTRUCTIONAL AND MANUAL. CLASS ROUTINE SHOULD BE STRICT AND…

The first U.S. charter school opened in 1992, and the scale of the charter movement has since grown to 4,000 schools and more than a million students in 40 states plus the District of Columbia. With this growth has also come a contentious debate about the effects of the schools on their own students and on students in nearby traditional public…

THIS STUDENT'S HANDBOOK IS FOR LANGUAGE LABORATORY INSTRUCTION IN MANDARIN CHINESE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. THE MATERIAL CONSTITUTES THE FIRST LEVEL OF A 4-YEAR SEQUENCE TO BE USED BY NINTH-GRADE STUDENTS. FIFTEEN UNITS ARE PLANNED FOR TWO SEMESTERS' INSTRUCTION. THIS TEXT CONSISTS OF (1) A BRIEF ENGLISH EXPLANATION OF THE SITUATION, (2) A CUE SHEET,…

NEW INTELLECTUAL APTITUDES WERE INVESTIGATED TO DETERMINE TO WHAT EXTENT THEY INFLUENCE ACHIEVEMENT IN NINTH-GRADE ALGEBRA AND GENERAL MATHEMATICS COURSES. TESTS AND CRITERIA WERE COMPLETED FOR APPROXIMATELY 400 STUDENTS IN THE NINTH GRADE. THEY WERE ENROLLED IN ONE OF FOUR MATHEMATICS COURSES AND ADMINISTERED ACHIEVEMENT EXAMINATIONS UPON…

The purposes of this study were to determine the physical education activity preferences of 9th grade students in a southern California school district, to identify which activities students felt should be offered in coeducation or gender separate formats, and to determine whether physical education is one of their favorite classes. Results…

This report examines the extent to which California high school students fail to meet the high school course requirements for admission to California's four-year public universities. It investigates students' course-taking patterns and whether the courses they take meet the universities' entrance requirements. Because students from a variety of…

For decades, educators have wrestled with how to handle the increasingly diverse religions of an increasingly diverse student body. Sometimes, the line between church and state--what schools can and cannot do under the Constitution--can feel confusing and slippery. Today, religion has become a subject one high school teachers describes as even…

School personnel in California were surveyed about family life education efforts. Although such programs exist in many districts, less than one-fourth of the ninth and one-third of the tenth graders received instruction. Recommendations for implementing, improving, and evaluating family life education programs are offered. (Author/DF)