To address the retained-student dropout rate and increase parent involvement, a Fort Lauderdale (Florida) middle school principal devised a program to help overage seventh graders catch up with their peers in one year and help parents achieve their own education goals. The Rogers' Achievement Program stresses basic skills, student-designed…

This study focuses on responses from a questionnaire surveying the personal, educational, and musical backgrounds of the all-state instrumentalists participating in the Florida Music Educators Association In-Service Concert. Subjects were 882 students in the nine instrumental ensembles surveyed. There were three groups for middle/junior high level…

This paper presents a description of a northern Florida middle school and of the students enrolled in the school, 92% of whom are African-American. Three quarters of the entire student population is eligible for free or reduced price government assisted lunches. This figure is double the state average. During academic year 1991-92, expenditure per…

These teacher-developed learning activities for grades 4-7 deal with consumer law-related topics. The self-contained activities are organized into five sections. Section one contains a role-playing card game that helps students examine rules and feelings. For example, one role-playing situation involves a confrontation between a student and a bus…

Designed for use with middle and junior high school students, this booklet contains ten instruments developed and validated by the Educational Progress in Careers (EPIC) project to evaluate career, economic, and community education programs in Florida schools. The instruments included in this document are Attitudes Toward School; Worker Titles;…

Provides background on ThinkQuest, the world's largest Internet learning competition. Describes the experience of H.D. Perry Middle School in Miramar, Florida, where students designed a Web site about one of their hobbies--juggling. Includes the 1997 ThinkQuest Category of First-Place Winners. (AEF)

Multigrade grouping is the practice of intentionally grouping two or more grade levels in the same classroom to enhance learning. It is becoming a much discussed and implemented alternative grouping practice in middle level education. This paper describes the implementation process of two multigrade "teams" in two Florida middle schools,…

This study examined how brief nurse consultations helped prevent alcohol use among urban youth. Surveys of sixth-eighth graders who did and did not complete the consultations indicated that intervention students reduced and control students increased their heavy drinking following the intervention. There were no differences on other alcohol use…

This set of activities is designed to bring water resource education into the middle school classroom using an interdisciplinary approach. The packet contains timely, localized information about the water resources of west central Florida. Each activity is aligned to middle-school Sunshine State Standards. These hands-on, minds-on activities can…

Designed for middle school through high school students, this unit contains eight lesson plans that focus on Florida state law. The state lessons correspond to lessons in the volume, "Antidote: Civic Responsibility. Drug Avoidance Lessons for Middle School & High School Students." Developed to be presented by educators, law student,…

This program was developed and implemented to correct noncompliance with Florida Education Legislation 233.061, to increase knowledge of basic facts surrounding the Holocaust and to increase positive tolerance attitudes of diversity. The objectives for the program were to increase the instruction of the Holocaust by 75%; increase the student's…

If teachers can be trained to attribute poor student performance to such things as insufficient instruction, low expenditure of effort, or poor strategy rather than students' lack of ability, they will modify instruction or provide a new learning strategy. For this to happen, teachers must first display attributional thinking about their own life…

This document presents the full revised course descriptions for Florida exceptional student education in grades 6-8. Courses incorporate the Florida standards for a special diploma. Requirements include a list of related benchmarks from the state standards for each level of functioning: independent, supported, and participatory. Introductory…

This proposal describes the organization and implementation of a "World Steel Drum Ensemble" as a strategy to solve the problems of low minority academic achievement, high minority discipline incidents, and minority isolationism. The drum ensemble studied and performed music from Caribbean, Hispanic, and African heritages in a middle…

"Teacher Education for America's Minorities" (TEAM) is a project of seven institutions of higher education in Florida. The project's goal has been to work within the teacher education systems at the seven institutions over a 6-year period (1990-1996). This paper addresses some of the issues and strategies related to barriers in the…