The increasing use of educational tests to establish the accountability, credibility, and viability of educational programs is paralleled with increasing criticism of the "accountability through testing" philosophy. To analyze the relevancy and appropriateness of tests for educational decision making at the school district level, three…

As part of a multiphase study on male and female student attitudes towards Air Force technical training and the relationship between those attitudes and student performance, the 121-item Technical Training Student Survey (TTSS) was administered to 12,666 technical training students. The attitudes of students from high attrition courses were…

Reports on a study done at Aberdeen University (England) which assessed the learning styles of first-year medical students. Results indicated that these students scored higher than other students in achievement (including study methods and competitiveness) and prediction for success. Includes the instrument used. (TW)

The proposed study was designed to improve the writing skills of students in the targeted first and fifth grade classrooms in one elementary school located in a Midwestern suburb. The study was designed as an action research project and was conducted by four researchers during the months of September through December 2002 with 118 participants (40…

Factors commonly associated with underachievement in the research literature include low self-concept, low self-motivation/self-regulation, negative attitude toward school, and negative peer influence. This study attempts to isolate these four factors within a secondary school population. The purpose of the study was to design a valid and reliable…

This is an abstract for an action research project report on improving student motivation. Students struggle with motivation to perform well in school. This study was designed to increase student motivation in the classroom setting. The targeted population consisted of one third grade classroom, one fourth grade classroom, and three periods of…

This practicum was designed to help five bright but underachieving fourth grade students in four classes regain their enthusiasm for learning through a multi-pronged approach with parents, students, classroom teachers, and specialists. Two workshops on learning styles and differentiated instruction were held for classroom teachers. Communication…

This report addresses the underrepresentation of Mexican-Americans in the faculties of U.S. universities. During the 11-year period from 1980 to 1990, a total of 91,837 women received doctorates from U.S. universities, and of these, 751 (0.7 percent) were Mexican-Americans. Of the 148,352 men who received doctorates during this period, 1,189 (also…

The Student Participation And Retention Keys (SPARK) project at Blue Ridge Community College sought to determine why adult basic education (ABE) and General Educational Development (GED) students dropped out of the college's basic skills program and how student retention could be improved. With input from current and former students, a survey form…

The program discussed in this paper was developed and implemented to improve student self motivation levels for a target group of 115 9th through 12th grade students who had classes with 1 of 4 participating teachers. Student self-motivation improvement activities were employed over a 12-week implementation period. Strategies developed were all…

Many students are not actively engaged in learning in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to develop understandings about student engagement with the mathematics curriculum and its influence on student engagement. The research was conducted in two seventh-grade classes taught by the same teacher, who used direct instruction. The…

Reasons for the withdrawal of 159 first-semester freshmen from Salem State College, Massachusetts, during the fall 1981 or 1982 semesters were studied. Questionnaire results supported the following assumptions: community problems contribute to student withdrawal, not getting into the dorm contributes to attrition for some students, financial…

This study investigated the effects of medium of instruction, task difficulty, and gender on continuing motivation. A total of 139 fifth and sixth graders with previous computer experience completed an initial learning task in one of the two media formats (computer or paper/pencil) and under either a hard or easy difficulty level. Students' choice…

Two reports of student nonpersistence at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), are provided, taken from the Maryland Longitudinal Study. The first study, which examined four questions regarding students who become nonpersisters, found the following: nonpersisters had poor high school and first-semester study habits, were apt to have…

Student instructional acitivity preferences and the apparent motives and substance underlying the preferences were analyzed. An 80-item classroom activity preference scale and a 12-item reaction to innovative instructional practices scale were administered to 746 new freshmen at Michigan State University. Responses to the 12-item innovative…