This study focused on understanding why at-risk seventh-grade students often perform poorly in school and how implementing certain strategies can help motivate them to positive classroom performance. The goal was to find ways to help at-risk students become more involved in their schoolwork. Literature has shown that motivation comes from the…

Objectives: To assess prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms in young adolescents and examine associations between symptoms and sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data from 3621 seventh grade students from 16 middle schools were analyzed. Results: Elevated depressive symptoms were reported by 40% of girls…

US majority (European-American) and minority (African-American, Latin-American, Asian-American) children were interviewed regarding race-based and non-race based reasons for exclusion in interracial peer contexts (N = 685), evenly divided by gender at 9, 12, and 15 years of age (4th, 7th, and 10th grades) attending 13 US public schools. All…

As part of the formative assessment for the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG), a multicenter study to reduce the decline of physical activity in adolescent girls, girls and boys with diverse ethnicity from six states participated in focus groups and semistructured interviews. Data from 13 girls' focus groups (N = 100), 11 boys' focus…

Since 1971 Edison Junior High School in Janesville, Wisconsin, has developed and used an innovative social science curriculum for junior high students. Process of the Social Scientist (POSS) is a 2-year program for the combined sixth/seventh grade which places primary emphasis on the process used by working social scientists rather than on the…

In Parcells Middle School social studies students in grades seven and eight select a six-weeks course of study from the slate of classes available out of the forty developed around the areas of geography and United States history. Development of these units is based on the following principles: an open-ended, self renewing curriculum; the rights…

Discusses the problems of disadvantaged youth and presents suggestions for solving them, including offering prevocational and career exploration experiences in grades 7-9, identification of student skills and abilities in these grades, expanded social and family counseling, vocational and academic educator cooperation in improving students' basic…

Based on 21 physically handicapped/learning disabled/emotionally disturbed children's self-evaluation on the Personal Attribute Inventory for Children and comparison with responses of 21 normal children, results suggest that negative stereotypes of exceptional children held by teachers and nonhandicapped peers may not be readily adopted by…

Observation of English and social studies classes revealed differences in classroom processes and interactions, due to differences in ways in which peer and student-teacher interactions were encouraged or controlled. The research demonstrated the importance of microanalytic studies of classrooms in desegregated settings. (Author/MJL)

Collected observations of parental behaviors of fifth graders and then obtained adjustment measures for the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Supportive, aware parenting was associated with early adolescents' positive academic, social, and psychological adjustment in fifth grade and with further improvement in adjustment in seventh grade. (RJM)

Describes study that investigated achievement and motivation effects related to locus of control and learner control on seventh and eighth grade Hispanic students completing a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) science lesson. Use of the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility scale is discussed, and a questionnaire that assessed student…

The effects of a school's age organization (age-segregated versus age-mixed) were examined within a quasi-experimental design with 702 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students. Factors measured include popularity, perceived competence, and mixed-age and cross-sex friendships. (TJH)

Examined the effects of intervention in the instruction of 12 male seventh-grade students for the purpose of developing number sense. Results indicate that after instruction students were more likely to use strategies to solve number magnitude, mental computation, and computational estimation problems that reflected number sense. (Contains 50…

Effects of ability grouping on cognitive achievement in mathematics and science were studied for middle school students from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, with a seventh grade sample of 1,900 students. Ability grouping helped the advanced, harmed the slower students, and had a negligible overall effect. (SLD)

The impact of learning mathematics under successful and unsuccessful cooperative group conditions was studied for 181 seventh graders in Montreal (Quebec) who had a learned-helplessness or mastery-oriented attributional style and different prior mathematics achievement. Learning of helpless and less able students may depend on accomplishments and…