Levels of general and area-specific achievement motivation for adolescents of varying backgrounds were assessed. General measures of achievement motivation revealed significant differences by race, sex, and social class. These factors exercised great influence on specific types of achievement behavior. (Author/DWH)

Derived longitudinal causal models of growth in mathematics and English constructs using three waves of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (n=24,599). Results indicate that the contribution of prior variables in English and mathematics to subsequent outcomes in both subjects was similar for females and males. Contains 68…

Using 74 eighth graders, the effects of computer-assisted cooperative, competitive, and individualistic instruction were compared. Computer-assisted cooperative instruction promoted greater quantity and quality of daily achievement, more successful problem solving, more task-related student-student interaction, and increased the perceived status…

Whether there is a gender-by-item interaction that makes easy mathematics test items easier for females than for males and difficult items harder for females than for males was tested in two studies, involving 10,321 eighth graders and 5332 ninth graders and results from nine mathematics tests. The hypothesis was generally supported, as discussed.…

Coursework-mastery test scores for all middle school students in a school district were used to test the narrowly meritocratic hypothesis that course-grade differentials for gender, ethnicity, and poverty groups can be accounted for by the differential coursework mastery of these groups. Samples ranged from 1,124 to 8,381 seventh graders and…

Norm-referenced mathematics achievement tests for Hawaii public school students in four ethnic groups and in grades 4, 6, 8, and 10 were examined for sex differences. Results indicate that girls have higher achievement levels than do boys. Variations across ethnic groups and sociocultural implications are discussed. (TJH)

Item responses of 2,380 mathematically talented junior high school students (1,437 males and 943 females) were studied to determine gender differences, using the mathematical sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M). Girls excelled on miscellaneous items and data sufficiency items but performed less well on algebra items than boys. (SLD)