Feedback is an essential ingredient for professional growth, but teachers receive limited feedback that is actually useful. Audrey Amrein-Beardsley and Tray Geiger discuss the flaws in two common forms of teacher feedback, value-added measures and classroom observations, often used as part of a summative evaluation. They suggest that student…

If educators want to engage girls in learning, they must align teaching practices with girls' specific needs. In a study modeled after Reichert and Hawley's study of boys, the authors learned that lessons with hands-on learning, elements of creativity, multimodal projects, and class discussions all worked to stimulate girls'…

The authors describe a promising approach to engaging high school students in intergroup dialogues, relying on "near peers"--in this case, local college students--to facilitate a series of classroom discussions about racial identity, differences, and opportunities to connect. Early results suggest that the approach had significant…

One of the most important aspects in our lives is learning how to have mutual, caring romantic relationships. Yet while schools and many other industries in this country devote tremendous attention and resources to preparing the young for work, they do remarkably little to prepare them for generous, self-respecting sex and love. Educators and…

Despite a continuing stream of concern on the part of researchers, demographers, and cultural pundits about a crisis in boys' social development and schooling, surprisingly little attention has been paid to what is perhaps the richest pool of data: current, observable teaching practices that clearly work with boys. In schools of all types in all…

Primary and secondary school students spend hundreds more hours in each classroom than any observer ever will. But, until now, school improvement efforts have seldom sought systematic student feedback at the classroom level. One impediment has been the doubt that students can provide valid and reliable responses about the quality of the teaching…

The authors report on two longitudinal studies that explored changes in aspirations, experiences, and attitudes in science over three years among students in California public middle and high schools. One study surveyed an ethnically and economically diverse group of over 400 students who participated voluntarily in 7th through 9th grades, and…

This article presents a survey designed to investigate what young people know about history. The survey was administered to 2,000 high school juniors and seniors across all 50 states. The students were asked to "jot down the names of the most famous Americans in history," with the caveat that they could not include U.S. Presidents or First Ladies.…

Argues that notwithstanding recent survey findings to the contrary, knowledge of history among today's elementary and secondary school students is no less---and probably more--than that of previous generations. Compares results of earlier history surveys to support argument. (Contains 28 references.)(PKP)

How realistic are high school students' educational aspirations? Reviewing the findings of the High School Survey of Student Engagement, Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Kuh note a troubling mismatch between the academic habits of many high school students and what will be expected of them in college. (Contains 1 figure and 19 endnotes.)

Reviews Ridgewood, New Jersey, case wherein several parents claimed that school district's student survey violated students' privacy rights protected by the Constitution and two federal statutes: The Family Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. Discusses subsequent federal regulatory and state legislative action.…