Two laboratory instructional approaches, individual project and mass production methods, were compared to determine their relative effectiveness in developing student understanding of industry in industrial arts. It was hypothesized that knowledge of tools, operations, industrial organization, and materials of industry could be taught as…

This paper reports on part of a qualitative study that enlisted a small number of students in fifth and eighth grades (n=19), all with a background of domestic computer ownership and use, for intensive work with texts in different media (i.e., books, videos, and CD-ROMs). The following questions were examined: (1) What are the consequences of…

The effect of a listening-to-literature program on the attitudes toward reading of 1,712 middle school (grades 6 through 8) students was studied. Selected teachers read aloud to students four or five days a week for six months. An experimental group pretest/posttest design indicated a positive difference in student attitudes. (SLD)

To investigate the effect of heterogeneous and homogeneous instructional groupings used in a middle school eighth grade on selected student behaviors, 120 students were assigned to a heterogeneous group and 120 students to a homogeneous group based on several factors. The heterogeneous group was comprised of all students enrolled in the school…

A total of 2,118 8th-grade, 12th-grade, and community college students (66% were Mexican American) from 11 Texas school districts and 3 community colleges were surveyed to determine the extent of family influence over their occupational and career choices. In addition, 581 parents completed mailed questionnaires and 100 more responded to a…

This document provides teaching guidelines and student material for a unit intended for use in junior high mathematics, consumer, or home economics programs. Time allotment is from four to six hours of classroom time. The objectives of this capsule are to enable students to identify reasons for comparison shopping, recognize the opportunity costs…

An explanation of why Asian American students perform better than others in school may lie in the nature of the learning programs they receive at home. The purpose of this paper is to define such programs that account for most of the differences in academic achievement among racial/ethnic groups. Data were used from the National Education…

The e-rater® system has been used by ETS for automated essay scoring since 1999. This paper describes a new version of e-rater (v.2.0) that differs from the previous one (v.1.3) with regard to the feature set and model building approach. The paper describes the new version, compares the new and previous versions in terms of performance, and…

It was hypothesized that a positive improvement in Hispanic junior high school students' Spanish and English reading abilities, reading attitudes and academic self-concepts would result after being provided special reading time with a wide variety of reading materials in Spanish. An experimental (E) group of approximately 200 grade 7 and 8…

Research reported here deals with 5,800 Georgia high school students' racial attitudes. Data were collected using a paper and pencil survey instrument administered to blacks and whites in 28 schools. A total of 21 independent variables were selected through an extensive literature search and used in the analysis. These were grouped into four…

Ideas young students have about their government and the effects of instruction and development on the formation of these ideas were studied for 26 students interviewed 4 times (before and after U.S. history instruction in grades 5 and 8). Why students' conceptions showed more consistency than growth is discussed. (SLD)

Examines relationships between student interests and aptitude in selected academic fields and their success in intensive courses on these subjects. Discusses a two-year study of 33 mathematics students and 32 literature students in the eighth and ninth grades in the Soviet Union. Shows that differentiated, intensive study did not strengthen…

This article reports on the results of a planning grant studying the effects of a highly rated curriculum unit on a diverse student population. The treatment was introduced to 1500 eighth grade students in five middle schools selected for their ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity. Students were given pre-, post-, and delayed posttests…

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the largest and most ambitious study undertaken by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Forty-five countries collected data in more than 30 languages. Five grade levels were tested in the two subject areas, so that more than half a million…

This paper presents the results of a comparison of data from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) 4th (n=179) and 8th (n=143) grade student and teacher samples to the data from the 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 4th and 8th grade student and teacher samples. This is part of a larger study of mathematics education in…