Examined educational outcomes for eighth graders: 409 in single-father, 3,483 in single-mother, and 14,269 in biological 2-parent families. Found that children from single-father and single-mother families performed roughly the same in school, but both were outperformed by children from two-parent families. Intervening processes explaining school…

This sixth chapter in "The Challenge of Counseling in Middle Schools" presents four articles on academic achievement in early adolescence. "Succeeding in Middle School: A Multimodal Approach," by Edwin Gerler, Jr., Nancy Shannon Drew, and Phyllis Mohr, describes a study conducted to examine the effects of the multimodal program, "Succeeding in…

Made comparisons from teachers' and self-report judgments of social skills, behavior problems, and academic achievement among 331 popular, controversial, neglected, or rejected adolescents in grades 6-10. Findings support past studies indicating that popular children displayed more socially skilled behaviors and fewer behavior problems than…

This paper describes the organizing and purpose of a conference on curriculum, instruction, and assessment in the middle grades that focused on higher achievement for all adolescents, especially those who are poor. The paper also contains a synthesis of the conference presentations and recommendations for policy and practice. Approximately 200…

Many young adolescent students are frustrated, reluctant learners that seem resigned to helplessness and other self-defeating behaviors. Telling students to try harder is not particularly effective. This article offers a goal-setting strategy to help youngsters become failure-avoiding, instead of failure-accepting, students. Teachers help students…

Ebata (1985) showed that among young adolescent boys high achievement was associated with better adjustment while low achievement was associated with poorer adjustment. A study was conducted to determine whether this pattern would generalize to links between achievement and self-image for boys and to describe the pattern of relationship between…

Because families and communities often fail to meet adolescents' need to belong to a productive, functional organization, schools are increasingly fulfilling this role. Membership depends on social bonding, which has four elements: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. Principals can remove impediments to membership by fostering a sense…

Examined the relationship between achievement and learning styles of middle school students. Subjects were chosen from one urban middle school and were asked to complete the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and Dunn & Dunn Learning Style Inventory. Found that traditional classroom settings may not provide sufficient environmental options to enable…

Young African American males' role models are those in the entertainment and sports arenas. Few see themselves as scholars, contributing to the common good. To counteract teachers' low expectations of black males' performance, educators at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland, established African-American Achievers, a program that…

Little research has investigated the relationships among sources, outcomes, and moderators of stress. There is a particular lack of such work with children and adolescents, especially work describing how the process unfolds with respect to the influence of continuing everyday stressors, such as those associated with the demands of schooling. This…

The report evaluates the 1985-86 Special Education Attendance Improvement/Dropout Prevention and Dropout Prevention (AIDP/DPP) programs as they operated in 45 New York City sites. City tax-levy DPP funds were allocated during the 1985-86 school year to the Division of Special Education to expand existing state-funded AIDP services for at-risk…

In some Western countries, it has been found that studying in schools of high-average ability has negative effects on one's self concept due to social comparisons with high-ability classmates. This has been metaphorically described as the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). To explore this phenomenon, the perceived school status as a measure of…

Examined parenting styles within families of high performing science students and explored gender differences in the factors associated with authoritative parenting style. Found that the authoritative parenting style was predominant among study participants and that a greater number of family-related variables emerge for females, whereas more…

In the 1982-1983 school year, the Public Education Association, an educational advocacy organization in New York City, undertook an action research project on young adolescents' stress in school. The project was located in one inner-city intermediate school for 4 years and is now following graduates of that school in the city's high schools. As…

Examined capacity to generate solutions to cope with stressful events and strategies used to cope with interpersonal and academic stressors among 130 middle school students. Found subjects consistent in generation and use of problem- and emotion-focused coping. Problem-focused alternatives generated and used were negatively related and…