The transition from middle into high school can be perilous for some students. High school freshmen fail at an alarming rate. In a general sense, the environment, expectations, structure, and culture of high schools are different from middle schools. However, school leaders can implement transition programs that may promote success of 9th graders.…

The current study aims at investigating the impact of homogeneous versus heterogeneous collaborative learning grouping in multicultural classes on the students' achievements and attitudes towards learning science. In the present study, heterogeneity was unpacked through two dimensions: the cultural background, represented by the different…

The internal/external frame of reference model (I/E model; Marsh, 1986) is a highly influential model of self-concept formation, which predicts that domain-specific abilities have positive effects on academic self-concepts in the corresponding domain and negative effects across domains. Investigations of the I/E model do not typically incorporate…

This study examines high school expectancies in a sample of at-risk, rural youth, and how these expectancies relate to 8th grade functioning, 9th grade functioning, and 9th grade experiences of high school. A total of 76 eighth-graders and their parents, drawn from a larger study of the transition to high school, participated in interviews the…

While a negative effect of ability grouping on the achievement of students assigned to lower ability groups has been noted frequently, no empirical research has looked at the effects on academic achievement of moving a student from one ability group level to a higher or lower group. In this paper, I report results of an empirical study that…

The authors investigated the relationship between self-perceptions of ability and achievement in math, science, and English from Grades 8 to 11 (N = 342). A state-trait model that included an association between stable (i.e., trait-like) components of self-perceptions and achievement as well as time-specific (i.e., state-like) effects during the…

The Chinese Language Classroom Environment Inventory (CLCEI) is a bilingual instrument developed for use in measuring students' and teachers' perceptions toward their Chinese Language classroom learning environments in Singapore secondary schools. The English version of the CLCEI was customised from the English version of the "What is…