This emergent theory describes the relationships and factors within the context of home, school, and community that enabled six Hispanic students to participate in an advanced diploma program. The research is in keeping with the mandates from several federal initiatives to develop "asset-based" paradigms for educating Hispanic youth.…

In this article, the authors show how oceanography can enlighten and energize the teaching of middle- and high-school social studies on a grade-by-grade basis, and they describe "hooks" from oceanography that will heighten students' interest in various social studies topics. They base the article on their own experiences--as a…

Whether there were differences in motivational and learning environment perceptions of students selected based on their performance on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) was studied over 3 years in a public school district in Texas. The degree to which affective elements of student behavior varied according to their success on this…

Little prior research exists on the achievement motivation of Mexican American students. In a rural south Texas junior high school, 120 eighth-grade students completed the 1969 Achieving Tendency Scales and demographic and socioeconomic questionnaires. Subjects were equally divided among four groups: Mexican American males and females and Anglo…

The Attendance +Plus program was initiated by the Fabens Independent School District to address the problem of high student dropout rates in west Texas schools. Aspects of the successful plan include cultivation of caring attitudes; emphasis on individual importance; rejection of myths about minority students and dropouts; and encouragement of…

This paper explores three programs that are innovatively helping U.S. immigrant students become educated, productive, full-fledged citizens. New York's International High School at LaGuardia Community College, which serves immigrant students only, has extremely high attendance and graduation rates. A top priority is increasing personalization for…

A Texas project provided a realistic recruitment model for minority teacher candidates. Precollege students attended casual group discussions with minority university students and an event involving discussions with university and public school staff and students (including minorities). This model let them realize college is attainable and…

Reported is a 1964 conference devoted to the problem of the low achiever in mathematics. Part I of the document presents five position papers concerned with motivation, Piaget's views on children's intellectual development, inplications of psychological research, the responsibility of school administrators, and business and industry cooperation…

A study was conducted to determine demographic characteristics, motivation, and program satisfaction of General Educational Development (GED) candidates and adult education (including adult basic education, secondary adult education, and English as a second language) students in Texas. Between June and December 1985, about 6,000 adult education…

Twenty-three Texas school districts conducted state-funded pilot projects in 1982 and 1983 to determine whether summer school programs could successfully remediate the needs of students who were retained in grade or had failed a required course, who were functioning greatly below their peers in skill attainment, or who were identified as having…

The title of the twenty-eighth yearbook mirrors the theme of the 2005 conference--"Learning in the 21st Century with Traditional and Electronic Literacies." The editors chose the title "Multiple Literacies in the 21st Century" in an attempt to reflect the contents of this yearbook which seem to approach literacy from a myriad…

Self-paced, individualized student and teacher workbooks were designed to improve the self-concept and motivation levels of vocational students. The program was based on the correlation between self-concept and school achievement. The program was field tested with 41 Job Corps students from the Gary Job Corps Center in San Marcos, Texas, and their…

The report describes a study designed to follow up successful examinees of the General Educational Development (GED) test administered at McLennan Community College. The study's purpose was to determine the trends, traits, and effects of specific aspects related to their receipt of a high school equivalency certificate. Of the 1,065 successful…

The Write for Your Life project allows students to examine life events that affect their health and well-being by creating spaces for them to inquire into the circumstances of their lives. This paper examines Write for Your Life in a Texas middle school with a diverse student population, focusing on three students' writing projects. (SM)

A study assessed vocational agricultural programs throughout Texas as they were perceived by the female students enrolled in them. During the study, researchers administered questionnaires to a randomly selected sample of 735 female students from 64 schools representing the 10 geographic areas of Texas. The students were asked to respond to…