This paper compares the responses of rural educators from northeastern Kentucky to those of a national sample of respondents completing Phi Delta Kappa's survey, "How Teenagers Respond." This survey aimed to determine what common values adults believe adolescents possess. Thirty-five administrators and teachers from middle schools and…

This paper examines the relationship between a school's grade configuration and student performance in Louisiana. Student performance was measured by academic achievement (standardized test scores) and student persistence (attendance, suspensions, expulsions, and dropouts). Elementary schools, middle schools, secondary schools, and combination…

Education in South Africa has mirrored the inequality and socio-political upheaval that has marked that country's history since the official establishment of apartheid in 1948. This paper provides a brief summary of some of the main issues impacting education in South Africa, a description of Fish Hoek Middle School just south of Capetown, an…

This paper describes the approaches being taken in 11 school districts that are located in California, Nevada, and Arizona to help disadvantaged newcomers within the districts, contrasts these approaches, and relates them to achievement-gain scores. The study's objective is to gauge whether school districts that were classified as high performers,…

This paper describes the different workplace cultures and accompanying professional values and behavior of university and public school partnership colleagues. It discusses the problems and successes of public school/university collaboration as documented in the research literature and relates those problems and successes to differences in…

This preliminary case study examined the knowledge and beliefs one seventh grade science teacher to determine: (1) how the teacher's knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning informed her thinking and actions; (2) what her conception of teaching was; and (3) what were the constraints of the instructional setting. Data was collected from…

Nationally many middle-level schools are changing from a traditional junior high school structure (grades 7-9) to middle schools (grades 6-8). A case study examined the impact of middle school organizational changes that occurred as a large North Carolina school system converted from junior high schools to middle schools on science teachers and…

This paper follows the development of and changes in relationships between university faculty and middle school staff involved in a Professional Development School (PDS) group. Discussion is based on two imaginary "snapshots" contrived from descriptions of the group at their first meeting and again at the year-end meeting. The snapshots reveal a…

A study of question and response patterns in middle and secondary schools in Indonesia is presented. The study examines questioning from the point of view of several previous studies. Interactions in 12 classes in English and in Bahasa Indonesian were videotaped in three middle schools and three secondary schools. Analysis of the data revealed…

Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students (N=301) from a rural county in Tennessee (Iris County is a pseudonym) completed a Rural School Success Inventory (RSSI) and the Learning Styles Inventory (LSI). The study explored differences between low Socioeconomic Status (SES) students and middle/high SES students. The RSSI provided information about…

Latent trait measurement theory was used to investigate the measurement characteristics of both parts of a multiple-choice measure of field-independence, the Finding Embedded Figures Test (FEFT). Analysis was based on data provided by 1,528 students enrolled in one of two middle schools located in the southern United States. Of the subjects, 731…

An administrator who has been involved in the reorganizations of five school systems to create middle schools found that the reorganization improved delivery of educational services to K-12 students. A districtwide reorganization improves teacher morale by offering an opportunity for teachers to move to a different grade organization in their…

Previous research has shown a relationship between formal reasoning ability and science process skill attainment. It has been hypothesized that an increased emphasis on teaching process skills might enhance the formal thinking abilities of students. A variety of strategies have been proposed to better accomplish this task, most notable, the…

The American Library Association's Carroll Preston Baber Research Award supported this project on the use, impact and feasibility of a computer assisted writing facility located in the library of Stetson Middle School in Philadelphia, an inner city school with a population of minority, "at risk" students. The writing facility consisted…

The factor structure of responses from 2,833 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders responding to a modified form of the My Education Scale (ME Scale) was examined. The scale measures factors related to school achievement. Students (52% from minority groups) in five middle schools completed the ME inventory. Responses were submitted to a principal…