This study examines the correlation between absence, cognitive skills index (CSI), and various achievement indicators such as the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP) test scores, discrepancies, and school-based English and mathematics tests for 64 seventh-grade students from one middle school. Scores for each of the subtests…

Changes in student perceptions over the first year of high school and the interrelations of student and student-reported mother, father, and teacher perceptions form the basis of this study. Self- and task-perceptions as well as utility judgments are measured in two subject domains, mathematics and English, since the transition to high school has…

Assertions that a "crisis" exists in education have been made for over a hundred years. In spite of half a century of progressive education, followed by academic reform in the 1960s, the level of performance was still viewed with alarm in the 1970s and again in 1991, upon the release of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores. Among the…

Traditionally, library instruction has been based on the sources in the library and not on the process of seeking information. A new approach to library skills may be needed to enable students to become effective information users. This study investigated the information search process of 140 high school seniors in six high schools. Subjects were…

This paper describes an experiment that was undertaken to examine the usefulness of the cloze test as an objective measure of a native speaker's writing ability. A modified version of the cloze test used by Oller and others to measure integrative language skills in non-native speakers was given to 100 freshman English students. The test…

Seven articles report on the effectiveness of suggestive instructional methods in improving learning in various academic subjects. The following reports are included: (1) "Americanizing Suggestopaedia: A Preliminary Trial in a U.S. Classroom," by Charles E. Gritton and Ray Benitez-Bordon (deals with science instruction at the eighth…

Partial findings of a large scale, year-long project to study the relationships among (1) teachers' self-reported instructional practices, (2) observed teacher instructional practices, (3) student evaluations of teacher effectiveness, and (4) student academic outcomes or year-end "amount of learning" in seventh and eighth grade English and…

This investigation sought to determine if a planned program in personal writing might be effective in teaching the language arts tasks of intermediate grade children. Examined were the effects of the personal writing treatment upon word meaning, paragraph meaning, spelling, language, writing, and attitudes toward reading. One experimental and one…

In an effort to motivate culturally different students to learn standard English while they remain proud of their dialect and retain it as their informal manner of speaking, 120 blacks at three grade levels role played from scripts the parts of employers, college admissions officers, and applicants. The scripts rewarded applicants who could and…

Primary school teachers tended greatly to overestimate the scores that their students would achieve in mathematics and English achievement tests and to greatly underestimate the scores they would achieve in the reading achievement test. Factors that influenced teachers' judgments include academic competence, student relationship with the teacher,…

This report is the first in a series of reports on teaching and learning in Foundation-supported schools. This report takes a careful look at instruction and students' academic work. In a subset of reforming schools, it examines whether students are exposed to challenging learning opportunities and whether challenging learning opportunities open…

The relationship between teachers' use of class time and student achievement, behavior, and attitudes was examined in a study of 102 English and mathematics classes in 11 junior high schools. Time use had a measurable effect on student achievement and attitudes in mathematics classes, but not in English classes. (Authors/PP)

Detailed text analysis was used to examine the expository writing patterns of four academically successful African American high school students. These bidialectic students brought culturally influenced text design patterns into the classroom. Implications for writing instruction for culturally diverse students are discussed. (SLD)

During the 1992-93 school year, the leadership of Benjamin Russell High School, located in Alexander City, Alabama, decided to experiment with blocked class periods. Under this option, sometimes referred to as the Copernican System, subjects are taught in double periods rather than in the conventional 50-minute periods normally used in most…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the effectiveness of a linguistically based and a nonlinguistically based spelling program on the spelling competency of elementary pupils; (2) the effectiveness of spelling…