The purpose of this action research project report was to reduce bullying in middle school students through the use of student-leaders. Twenty-eight 8th graders, two counselors, and 24 teachers participated for a total of 54 participants. The study was conducted between September 11, 2007, and December 20, 2007. This project focused on four types…

The purpose of this action research project was to increase homework completion through the use of motivating strategies. There were approximately 75 students, 100 parents, and three teacher researchers involved in this study. The three intervention strategies used were 15 minutes of class time, extrinsic rewards, and assignment notebook checks.…

This report described how implementation of differentiated assignments provided documentation of how students' motivation increased. The volunteers that participated in this study were 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Students struggle academically to meet the expectations of their instructors. These struggles impact how students learn academically,…

This action research project report summarizes the methods used to reduce boredom and frustration and increase students' academic motivation in three mixed-ability classrooms. This action research project included 21 third grade students, 23 fifth grade students, and 28 eighth grade students (n=72) during the dates of September 10, 2007, through…

A project was created to help seventh and eighth grade students improve their academic success. Students attended a middle school located in a growing urban community in the Midwest. Existence of the problem included records of low grades; an observation checklist to measure off-task behaviors; teacher surveys that determined the effect of missing…

This study tested the existence of a positive relationship between interest and problem-solving ability when problems were set in the area of interest among secondary-school students. Three parallel forms of a verbal problem-solving test, corresponding to the interest areas of outdoor, computational, and scientific, were constructed by the…

The instructional program presented in this paper was implemented to improve the computer literacy and reduce computer anxiety of the teachers at a junior high school that serves 8th and 9th graders in the southeastern United States. The target group was 65 teachers at the site. The program consisted of 6 hours of instruction and hands-on…

To determine how comprehension of the Kuder General Interest Survey (KGIS) was affected by alternate modes of inventory administration and reading levels of eighth grade students (as determined by the California Tests of Basic Skills vocabulary scores), 153 students were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups--standard administration,…

The purpose of this study was to gather descriptive data about the mathematics achievement levels of students in grades 6 and 8 in 1973 for comparisons to data from 1936, 1951-55, and 1965. Among the areas identified for comparisons were whole number computation, fractional equivalents, problem solving, computation involving compound denominate…

A study measured the effectiveness of the Channel One news program on student achievement in current events. Data were collected to measure the difference in current events knowledge between those students who viewed and discussed Channel One, and those students who had no access to the program. Data based on gender differences in student…

The Reading Comprehension and Spelling subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test were administered to 170 eighth grade students to test four null hypotheses about the differences between reading ability, spelling ability, and phonic generalization spelling errors. In addition, a specially constructed Phonics Generalization Spelling Test was…

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the extent to which students in a rural Arkansas school district felt that bullying existed in their school. One hundred seventh grade students and 150 eighth grade students in a middle school were surveyed by a Likert questionnaire of ten items. Measures were taken to insure that students of all…

An action research project was designed and implemented to improve student motivation and performance levels in middle school music performance programs. The targeted population consisted of 43 eighth-grade band and choral students in two diverse suburbs of a large Midwestern city. The problem of lack of motivation to achieve high levels of…

In order to investigate the effect of experimenter-controlled reading speeds on the literal comprehension of multilevel reading passages and to assess the effects of operant-regulated, or self-regulated, conditions on reading speed, these two studies sampled a total of 400 eighth graders. Two passages, originally written at the eighth-grade level,…

This study investigated the extent to which instructional objectives in eighth grade English classes provide criteria for a program in English for the early adolescent student. The study was conducted in eight representative eighth grade classes in public schools in Los Angeles County where eighth grade English teachers had signed Stull Act…