Asserts that authentic assessment can be applied successfully to the social studies. Describes a long-term, role-playing activity recreating the voyages of Ibn Battuta, who lived during the Islamic golden age. Includes project objectives, student assignments, a biographical sketch of Ibn Battuta, and a model of a student presentation sheet. (CFR)

Describes the use of a modified version of the I-Search writing process for a high school freshman English research paper. Topics include collaboration between the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian, student journals, research strategies, problem solving, recognizing bias and opinions in sources, student assessments, and teacher…

Increased interest in interdisciplinary instruction in secondary schools has led to the development of different models. At one school in the Shenandoah Valley (Virginia) three designs evolved when teams of teachers took on nontraditional, integrated instruction as a goal. In general, integrated curriculum designs in secondary schools match one of…

This report presents data from the 1988 National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88), which started with an eighth grade cohort and aimed to provide data on dropout experiences as students made the transition into high school and to examine the contextual school and family factors associated with dropping out. The report offers extensive…

An brief overview of the Achievement Testing Program conducted by Alberta Education (AE) during 1980-90 is provided. The program provides AE, jurisdictions, schools, and the public with information about students' knowledge and skills in relation to objectives in the provincial program of studies. Program tests are administered every 4 years on a…

This research compared the performance of ninth grade females and males on flight protocol, with particular attention to interpretation of the graphs of paths of falling bodies, rolling objects, and projectiles. These subjects were chosen because they had received no formal instruction in projectile motion, yet through typical life experience, had…

Sixteen instructors who teach the ninth grade career cluster programs at the Cape May County Career Center produced learning activity packets which would constitute the required career exploration and decision-making activities for ninth graders. At a forty-hour workshop conducted during the summer of 1979 they developed fifteen separate but…

This paper is based on a reexamination of data from implementation in 1993-94 of the "Connections" program, a voluntary interdisciplinary program option for ninth-grade students in Cedar City (Ohio). Data gathered from the four teachers (representing English, Physical Science, World History, and Learning Disabilities) and 80 students (including 10…

This practicum was designed to develop and implement innovative strategies to improve home/school communication and to increase family involvement of hard-to-reach parents in an effort to cultivate healthy home/school relationships and an open and friendly school climate resulting in a more effective high school. The writer established an advisory…

In 1986, a total of 11 different populations involving more than 1000 schools and more than 20,000 students participated in the Second IEA Science Study (SISS). This digest discusses findings related to curricular patterns and student outcomes. Ratings were done at grades 5, 9, and 12, to ensure that the achievement tests reflected the science…

Two ninth-grade curriculum development projects were carried out over a three-year period (1975-78) in West Virginia at Point Pleasant Junior High School and at Wahama Junior/Senior High School. Known as Project Open, these projects resulted in the development and classroom testing of two new technology-based courses called "Career…

Describes a study of Australian independent schools that assessed the use of laptop computers in science classrooms in grades eight and nine. Highlights include students' perceptions of teachers' interpersonal behavior; associations between teacher-student interpersonal behavior and students' attitudes to science and their enquiry skill…

The project was to design, produce, and field test interactive video materials to increase junior high school student interest in physics and chemistry. A curriculum development team consisting of junior high school physical science students and teachers and university educators produced a seven-part videotape series entitled "The…

During its second year, the Hispanic Vocational Exploration Project recruited eighth and ninth grade Hispanic youth for a four-week cycle, after-school, career exploratory program at Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical School, Groton, Connecticut. A series of career education workshops was the other major project activity. Supportive…

This paper illustrates how Homewood-Flossmoor High School, Illinois District 233 addressed the decline in its student achievement results and improved college readiness among its students. This sharp decline caused school officials to stop and reevaluate what they were doing. A review of the facts led to a clear conclusion: "Rigorous…