This paper reports on part one of a study that examined the effectiveness of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program as a drug resistance, violence avoidance program in West Vancouver, Canada schools. Attitudes toward DARE held by students, teachers, and parents of children in the program were examined in order to evaluate how DARE was…

This report shares the initial Phase 1 results from a quantitative and qualitative study examining the feasibility and desirability of offering Minnesota students with limited English proficiency (LEP) a reading test with bilingual test items and answer choices. In considering the use of a native language translation accommodation to the Minnesota…

The purpose of this study was to determine Tapp Middle School's instructional technology staff development needs, determine sustainability and staff development costs, and develop a long-range comprehensive instructional technology staff development action plan. This study also focuses on the student as the customer who deserves access to the best…

Examined 6 widely used grade-8 standardized tests for content, required processes, and level to determine their alignment with the 5-8 NCTM "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards." Concluded that these tests inadequately covered the 5-8 standards. A follow-up study examined items from newly developed and foreign tests to demonstrate the…

A practicum took place in a summer remedial program for students with learning problems and specifically focused on five middle school students and how, with computer use and computer assisted instruction, the students increased their ability to recognize main ideas. The students in the target group, with the skills learned in the summer school…

Mandated team planning for a school undergoing restructuring is a major policy change with significant effects on teachers and administrators. One junior high school restructuring into a middle school served as a vehicle for studying how teachers spent their time in mandated team planning. Team planning was initiated to help smooth the transition…

The Scholars-in-the-Schools program (SIS), previously known as Humanities-in-the-Schools (HIS), is designed to improve humanities education by placing humanities scholars in residence at a middle school or high school. The scholar works with teachers and students as a resource person in a variety of ways: as a curriculum consultant; lecturer;…

This feasibility study was conducted to determine the appropriateness and viability of developing a video-based training program to assist music educators in mainstreaming students with disabilities into general music classes. Following an introduction, the report is organized into five chapters: (1) Mainstreaming and Music Education, which…

Social studies teachers utilized outmoded textbooks to assign, discuss, and test a model that allowed little time for integration of other resources besides the text. With training, the teachers began to incorporate other instructional strategies. A questionnaire administered to six social studies teachers showed that five out of the six teachers…

This document presents a two-part study. In the first part, open-ended questions based on interview studies were administered via paper-and-pencil tasks to 76 sixth and eighth grade students. In the second part, the earth and sun relationship questions were extracted, modified, and given to 178 seventh grade students. In part one, the performance…

This study was undertaken to establish whether and how elementary school principals differ from junior high or middle school principals and senior high principals in their perceptions of their jobs. The results indicate that, with the exception of one variable, no significant difference exists among these groups in their perceptions of job-related…

To determine the nature of middle school education as it is currently practiced, researchers randomly selected 100 seventh-grade students in 100 schools in 30 states, and assigned an observer to write down each student's behavior and describe the learning environment at specified intervals during the school day of February 17, 1977. Analysis of…

The initial phase of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) provided all 7th and 8th grade students and their teachers with laptop computers. In the fall of 2003, a survey of all teachers involved with the program was administered by Maine Education Policy Research Institute to determine how and to what extent the technology was being…

The transition from elementary to middle school can be an exciting as well as scary time for young adolescents. The stress of this transition can be decreased by incorporating transition programs that address student needs and concerns. This qualitative research study was designed to gain an overall sense of fourth grade in order to better…

Discipline concerns have consistently been ranked in the top 10 of the most serious problems facing public schools. Discipline problems were examined in 12 urban and rural middle and junior high schools in Utah. For each discipline referral over a 5-week period, a standardized student referral form was completed that documented action taken by the…