This investigation explored the differences in the motivational beliefs of ninth-grade Asian American and non-Asian students. Participants were 154 Asian Americans of various ethnicities and 372 non-Asians. Student beliefs about achievement were explored through a questionnaire developed for the study. The statistical findings suggest that the…

In an attempt to determine the subscale structures most useful for identifying adolescents with social skill deficits, this study investigated the factor structure of the Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS) and its relationship to two measures of adolescent social competence. Two measures were completed by 1,142 ninth-grade students (577…

Using techniques of inference appraisal suggested by T. A. van Dijk and R. J. Sternberg, a study investigated whether by assigning particular writing tasks it would be possible to influence the way readers produce inferences about a text. Subjects, 52 ninth grade students, read especially prepared booklets and completed either a paraphrasing,…

Case-based learning is one method that can be used to foster critical thinking and schema construction. Students need to be provided with problem solving lessons in meaningful learning contexts for critical thinking to take place. In order for schema construction to occur, a framework needs to be provided that helps readers to elaborate upon new…

Maryland is one of the states which recently developed new requirements for high school graduation. A preliminary evaluation of these new state standards has raised a number of issues about graduation standards and their assessment. The Maryland State Department of Education examined statewide policies and guidelines for high schools between 1982…

The viability of the Partial Credit Model (PCM) of G. N. Masters (1982) for scaling and banking individual essay prompts from a statewide writing assessment program was investigated. Preliminary analyses indicated the feasibility of using the PCM, the general polychotomous form of the Rasch model, with essay data from the Maryland Writing Test…

Most school curricula include the study of health as a separate subject or as part of science. Despite this, students often leave school without a clear understanding of many health concepts. This study investigated a group of grade eight and nine students' knowledge of personal health and physical fitness concepts and its relation to locus of…

Two ninth-grade classrooms and the dynamics between the social organization of the classroom and the teaching of subject matter were studied. A general mathematics and a social studies class, both geared for the academically deficient, were observed during one academic year. Observations focused on student and teacher behavior in the two classes…

The effects of school characteristics upon achievement test scores in New York State were studied. Data, composed of the 1975-76 Consolidated Data Base and Finance Tapes for all 705 school districts in the state, were supplied by the New York State Department of Education. Among the 24 variables of interest were: state pupil evaluation tests of…

Two paper and pencil group tests were assessed for their ability to classify subjects as concrete or formal operational. The two group tests, Sheehan's (1970) version of Longeot's three subtests and set of three puzzles, were administered to 607 students from ninth- and tenth-grade science and mathematics classes. A subsample of 69 students was…

The feasibility of using a computer-based networked collaborative concept mapping system to measure teamwork skills was studied. A concept map is a node-link-node representation of content, where the nodes represent concepts and links represent relationships between connected concepts. Teamwork processes were examined for a group concept mapping…

This study considered the sociocultural nature of learning for students in a multicultural classroom setting, specifically investigating student-student and student-teacher relationships in a junior high classroom using a "community of practice" perspective. This framework was chosen to determine what contribution a community of practice…

This study examines the relative influence of peer and parenting behavior on changes in adolescent gang involvement and gang-related delinquency. An ethnically diverse sample of 300 urban ninth-grade students was recruited and assessed on 8 occasions during the school year. Analyses were conducted using hierarchical linear modeling. Results…

This paper presents preliminary findings from a large-scale study of ability grouping in English secondary schools. Forty-five secondary schools representing three levels of grouping took part in the research. Within these schools, data have been collected from a cohort of Year 9 pupils, aged 13-14 years. All these pupils took tests in English,…

Two studies involving 63 second through fourth graders and 43 ninth graders investigated the influence of gender, race, and friendship on social comparison choices. Implications of the results for social comparison theory and social policy and education practice are discussed. (TJH)