Since 1985, the National Crime Prevention Council and the National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law have been supporting the implementation of the Teens, Crime, and the Community (TCC) curriculum for use in a variety of settings. The curriculum is intended for teenagers aged 14 to 18. The 1992 evaluation was an outgrowth of smaller…

This action research project involved implementation of a program designed to minimize inappropriate student behavior that interfered with instruction. The target populations were students in three third grades in an elementary school, one third grade in an intermediate school, and one eighth grade social studies class in a middle school. All…

A summative evaluation assessed the progress made by the Westport Middle School Communications/Writing Magnet program's third year of operation. Part of the Kansas City, Missouri, School District's Long-Range Magnet School Plan, the program consists of 11 theme strands (text, creative writing/composition, dramatic arts, public speaking,…

This study examined the effectiveness of the first year of a project designed to support the use of computers to improve the writing skills of middle level students. Subjects, 2,285 students from all of the 16 school districts in Delaware, engaged in daily writing activities on computers using the process approach to writing. One teacher from each…

The purpose of this practicum was to increase teachers' awareness of various learning styles and multiple intelligences in middle school classrooms by analyzing their own styles and applying that knowledge to their teaching styles and strategies. Six workshops designed to introduce, assess, and offer tangible classroom strategies in…

Critical pedagogy, an ideology which opposes education as domination, views knowledge and learning as constructed by the student and teacher together. Its goal is personal and social emancipation and empowerment. The purposes of this paper are to (1) indicate problems in science education which can be addressed by teaching science from a critical,…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has stated that mathematics programs should take full advantage of the power of calculators at all grade levels. This recommendation urges that students be provided access to calculators, and that calculator use be integrated into the core mathematics curriculum on a regular basis. This…

These item specifications were developed as a part of the Arkansas "Minimum Performance Testing Program" (MPT). There is one item specification for each instructional objective included in the MPT. The purpose of an item specification is to provide an overview of the general content and format of test items used to measure an…

This 35-item, multiple-choice Marine Education Knowledge Inventory was developed for use in upper elementary/middle schools to measure a student's knowledge of marine science. Content of test items is drawn from oceanography, ecology, earth science, navigation, and the biological sciences (focusing on marine animals). Steps in the construction of…

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which principals, teachers, parents, and students report that the recommendations of the 1981 Middle School Report were being implemented in each of the five middle schools in the North York (Ontario) school system. The 13 recommendations addressed such issues as the philosophy of the middle…

The goal of this study was to interpret patterns of consonance and dissonance between the parenting behaviors that parents report and those that their middle-school children expect them to report. A questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of middle-school children in grades 6-8 in Felton Laboratory School at South Carolina State…

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school principals' and teachers' perceptions of the current issues in middle school reading education and to identify the sources of information that these educators use and find helpful to keep informed reading issues. Participants were employed in the 14 middle schools of the Knox County School…

This book offers hands-on suggestions for administrators who want to assess their schools' health. The goal is to improve middle schools by making sure the culture is right for all groups--students, teachers, and staff. Chapter 1, "Climate, Culture, and Quality," distinguishes between the concepts of organizational culture and climate, formulates…

Preservice teachers had the opportunity to make use of computers while tutoring elementary and middle school children in reading, mathematics, and integrated reading and mathematics. These tutors (n=128) responded to a survey that was designed to elicit responses about the value of computer use for tutoring and the motivational and learning…

This report describes a program for improving reading comprehension skills in order to heighten understanding of materials covered in class and performance on activities and exams. The targeted population consisted of first-, fifth-, and eighth-grade students in a large, lower- to middle-class community located in central Illinois. The problems in…