An action research project was developed and implemented using student self monitoring of higher order thinking skills and task management to improve the music skills of a fifth grade beginning band (n=30) from a small middle school located in a rural midwest village. Evidence of the problem was documented with a performance test, a written test,…

A study examined the effectiveness of a program for improving student writing skills by using whole language. Targeted population was a fifth grade class of 30 students in a stable middle class, suburban community, located in Rockford, Illinois. Writing deficiencies were documented through data gathered from norm referenced tests, quality and…

This practicum project used a combination of strategies to improve creative thinking skills in second- and third-grade gifted students. Sixteen students were targeted for the intervention. Over a 12-week implementation period, students participated in 90-minute interventions twice weekly. The intervention was comprised of 30-minute creative…

Using the findings of an earlier study regarding differences between student and teacher perceptions of what circumstances might contribute to a student's being "at risk," a follow-up study investigated what teachers and other school personnel can do to help at-risk students. Based on responses to two open-ended questions from the…

Funded through the Ohio Disadvantaged Pupil Program Fund, the Columbus Public Schools' Instructional Aide (IA) Program served 309 kindergarten children and 1,793 first-grade students during the 1988-89 school year. The goal of the IA program was to provide an educational support program for underachieving pupils. Instructional aides were trained…

A practicum intervention designed to improve the basic skills of second and fourth graders by means of computer-assisted instruction was implemented. The intervention focused on improving students' mathematics and writing scores on the Student State Assessment Test (SSAT), a test administered state-wide to third and fifth graders every year. Staff…

The Austin Independent School District Office of Research and Evaluation (AISD-ORE) has recently completed a three year study of the effects of retention on elementary students. As in other studies comparing the academic achievement of elementary retainees and similar students not retained, findings indicated that promoted students generally show…

An applied dissertation was designed to improve the performance of sixth-grade social studies students based on content-area work and teacher-made tests. Teachers used difficult, low-level, performance-based assessment methods to identify student achievement. This indicated that students possessed very limited opportunities to think beyond the…

This action research project developed a program for improving the social proficiency of art and music students through the use of specifically taught positive social skills. The targeted population consisted of fifth-grade students from two different elementary school districts. Both schools were located in middle class suburban communities near…

This action research project evaluated a program for improving middle school and high school students' engagement and ownership in the learning process. The problems of students exhibiting an inadequate level of engagement and ownership was documented through data showing quality of student work, anecdotal records kept by the teachers, and…

A teacher inservice training program was developed to increase student writing skills in a suburban elementary school. Subjects were 9 teachers and 200 third and fourth grade students. Strategies included implementing demand writing activities into the content area curriculum. For subject students, levels of success were measured by pre-training…

This practicum report describes a staff development program that was designed to implement a peer tutoring program in which nonhandicapped students instructed three trainable mentally handicapped peers in a regular high-school setting. The program was implemented to increase the achievement of handicapped students in basic academic skills that…

Designed to help students improve their understanding of everything they read, especially the types of reading selections that they will find on standardized tests (such as the ACT and SAT), this guide explains the 3 key steps to strategic reading: preview before reading, underline and annotate while reading, and summarize after reading. It…

A project determined the impact of the California Literacy Campaign (CLC) on its learners. Researchers used information from two California Adult Learner Progress Evaluation Process (CALPEP) forms: Where We Started (WWS) and a Semiannual Report (SR). The study focused on new adult learners served by the CLC for the first time between July and…

A study determined the impact the California Literacy Campaign (CLC) was having on adult learners based on changes in the California Adult Learner Progress Evaluation Process (CALPEP) learner progress forms. The two California Adult Learner Progress Evaluation Process (CALPEP) forms analyzed were: Where We Started, completed by learner and tutor…