The third Attorney General's California Student Substance Use Survey was conducted between December 1989 and March 1990. A total of 6,282 students in grades 7, 9, and 11 participated. The primary focus was the extent to which declines in the use of drugs other than alcohol observed in the 1987-88 survey persisted, and whether the decline included…

Developed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, this booklet contains the competencies, item specifications, and sample items for the language arts competency tests for grades three, seven, and ten. Each competency statement contains a brief description, sample items, content, question form, and response form. The booklet also offers…

An assessment was designed to ascertain student status in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains of physical education, and to survey the physical education programs and instructional practices through the use of student, parent, teacher, and administrator questionnaires. This assessment was conducted throughout the province of British…

Adolescents continue to use alcohol and other drugs despite the profound risks to their health. This thesis examines the attitudes of students in grades 7-9 toward alcohol and other nonprescriptive mind-altering substances. Eight independent variables were investigated: (1) gender; (2) grade placement; (3) DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)…

This practicum report describes the development of a program designed to improve self-confidence in low-achieving seventh grade girls towards computers. The questionnaire "My Feelings Towards Computers" was used for pre- and post-comparisons. Students were introduced to the computer program LOGO, were taught to compose programs using the…

This document reports on the history of social and behavioral research studies concerning nuclear war since 1945, highlighting those studies that focused on adolescents and their feelings of fear, hopelessness, powerlessness, and denial. A study, designed to assess the reactions of adolescents in grades six to eight to the threat of nuclear war is…

The reading comprehension tests, one for nine-year-olds usually in grade 3 and one for thirteen-year-olds usually in grade 7, were developed from released items on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The tests were constructed to assess student achievement against a national norm, by comparing individual student scores to the national…

A study evaluated the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing Program. The comprehensive evaluation examined the background literature, the psychometric characteristics, and the impact of the writing assessment both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicated that: (1) the majority of fifth- and seventh-grade students in Alabama do not…

Researchers from BBN Laboratories and Lesley College (Massachusetts) have begun exploratory studies to build an understanding of the learning that occurs when middle school students interact with science-based simulations. Sixty hours of discussion among eight middle school students were videotaped as they used the simulations from the…

The "Standards" of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) were established as a broad framework to guide reform in school mathematics, not as a specific curriculum. Whether the implementation of the NCTM standards in classrooms has a relationship to student anxiety about mathematics was studied. Student levels of…

This practicum intervention was designed to improve the effectiveness of a middle school's interdisciplinary teams. While the school's sixth grade teams were judged to be effective in implementing the district's philosophy, two seventh grade and two eighth grade teams, composed of 18 teachers and 588 students, were among 70 interdisciplinary teams…

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a federally funded program aimed at encouraging disadvantaged middle and high school students to have high expectations, stay in school, and take college preparatory courses. The West Virginia Department of Education received funding to conduct the program in eight rural…

Two papers by the same author describe efforts to predict school dropouts by collecting information from students and teachers during grade seven. In the first paper, "Trying To Predict School Dropouts at Grade Seven," researchers developed an instrument, "Is This True for Me?" based on the Junior Index of Motivation (JIM)…

An innovative intermediate music programme was instituted at an elementary school in a middle class suburban area in Canada. The music teacher at the school designed a unique curriculum, the Technology in Music Programme (TIMP), for a classroom equipped with microcomputers, sequencers, drum machines, music instrument digital interface (MIDI)…

The Planning, Monitoring and Implementing (PMI) Evaluation Model for Decision-Making was used by the District of Columbia Public Schools to monitor the efforts of their Office of Educational Technology in providing direction and coordination for computer related activities, and in planning and implementing educational television (ITV) projects in…