Examined the class formation procedures used in 22 elementary schools from two districts and the influence these procedures had on the composition of 200 classes, 56 of which were combination classes of students from two grade levels. Principals tended to assign higher ability and more independent students to combination classes to ease teacher…

A total of 21 full-day structured classroom observations were conducted in six classes of the Austin Independent School District Bilingual Preschool Project (Texas) having a high incidence of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. Each class consisted of 15 LEP students and 3 English-proficient students. It was anticipated that…

A meta-analysis of findings from 31 separate studies showed that ability grouping has significant positive effects on the academic performance of elementary school children. The benefits of grouping tended to be small in the typical study of achievement --an increase from the 50th to the 58th percentile for the typical student in a grouped class.…

Preliminary results of this study of the preconditions for pedagogical change in Swedish schools indicate that national curricular emphases have changed, but that accompanying changes in teaching methods may conceal wide variation in content and import. The study's objective was to identify the factors conducive or hostile to change in the…

This report presents the findings of a 17-month project whose aim was to analyze the complexity of language use in the classroom through the examination of one classroom event or key episode type: the "service-like event." This term covers those situations during periods of individualized instruction in which a child who is not working with the…

Presents some of the findings of the ORACLE research program (Observational Research and Classroom Learning Evaluation), a detailed observational study of teacher-student interaction, teaching styles, and management methods within a sample of primary classrooms. (Editor/SJL)

Queried 571 elementary school principals in 12 states to determine: (1) the frequency of nontraditional (combination and nongraded) classes; and (2) changes in the use of combination classes during recent years. Found that although combination classes represented 17% of California classrooms, most states contained only 3 to 7%. Nongraded classes…

Studied the existence of optimal classes (classes in which students reach maximal individual achievement with little difference in outcomes within the class) in two German samples from a reading literacy study, representing more than 270 classes of eighth graders. Findings show different proportions of optimal classes in the five basic German…

Presents a framework for understanding the volume and content of socialization messages within primary school classrooms (n=64). Explains that the framework includes five levels of classroom and school organization. Utilizes three methods for data collection: (1) classroom observation; (2) interviews with teachers and principals; and (3) reading…

Examined the class distributional properties of 200 elementary school classes in 2 school districts. Fifty-six classes were combination classes of students from 2 grades. Principals and teachers tended to assign higher ability and more independent students to such classes, and these assignments affected the class distributional properties.…

Despite some fears that small schools would have difficulty implementing the British National Curriculum, findings from 50 schools (9 with fewer than 100 students) show that small schools may provide greater opportunities for innovative curriculum and class organization and strong curricular leadership from headmasters who teach. (SK)

This document summarizes the first wave of data collection and findings for the elementary, middle, and senior high schools participating as pilot sites for the Positive Attitudes in Tennessee Schools (PATS) Project. Following an overview of the goals of the project, the school improvement change model used by the project, and the research and…

School location of microcomputers and its impact on use were examined using data from the National Survey of School Uses of Microcomputers. An analysis of the responses from 1,082 (68% of the sample) microcomputer-using, public and non-public, elementary and secondary schools surveyed between December 1982 and March 1983, suggests that where…

This study examined the relationship between intensity of study (defined as more hours per week of class within a subject matter area) and student success. The researcher identified two possible methods for increasing the intensity of study: (1) Compression Hypothesis--shortening the length of terms and increasing the amount of time per week spent…

Reveals a clear relationship between teachers' aims and objectives and choice of class organization and that pupils taught in classes in which reading is heard in groups achieve higher reading standards than do those taught individually. Shows also the effects of time on the quality of instruction. (FL)