In the middle years of schooling, spanning grades four to nine, it is common practice for generalist teachers to deliver integrated arts education. Research confirms that teacher effectiveness with the arts is influenced by their sense of efficacy, which is derived from a coalition of factors including confidence, competence, subject mastery and…

In its six chapters, this report assesses the status of the sixth grade. The shadow study technique was employed to address three specific questions: (1) What is a sixth grader's day in school really like? (2) In what ways do the programs provided for sixth graders differ, depending on where the grade is located in the school system? and (3) How…

The purpose of this study was to ascertain middle school student and science teacher perceptions of the science inquiry experiences fostered in their science classrooms and to develop a science inquiry profile based on survey information from students and teachers. Nine hundred seventeen middle school (grades 6-8) science students and their…

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study and applying hierarchical linear modeling, this study found a strong gap in achievement in math and science between adolescents with and without learning disabilities (LD). The gap was reduced for LD adolescents who did not make a school transition until at least ninth grade. (DB)

Motivated in part by impending consolidation, a Chapter I reading teacher in an economically depressed rural community asked her middle-school students (n=30) to interview one person who had attended a community school in the past. Questions centered around school buildings, teachers, classes, and special activities. The students read the…

Field observations of and interviews with 13 low-skilled 6th graders in physical education indicated that they all exhibited symptoms of learned helplessness. Students had knowledge of being low-skilled, and they experienced teachers communicating low expectations to them. Students were unwilling to expend effort to learn skills, so they were…

Explores the meanings constructed around the concept of cooperation by a teacher and her fifth-grade students during cooperative learning. Their experiences indicate that cooperative learning has the potential to be a wolf in sheep's clothing, promising much but actually stifling the empowerment of students for proactive social action. (SLD)