Used meta analysis to synthesize research on the effects of interventions to improve mathematics achievement of students considered at risk for academic failure. Found that effective interventions included providing teachers and students with student performance data; using peer tutors; providing clear, specific feedback to parents on children's…

Describes two classroom activities that introduce critical-thinking skills into social studies instruction. One is a debate, followed by position papers, on the contribution of Christopher Columbus. The other is a simulation of a Constitutional Amendment conference. Discusses which parts of the lessons specifically focus on critical-thinking…

Introduces three perspectives on the Hawthorne Elementary School (Houston, Texas) reform effort. The case studies indicate that successful restructuring of schools serving highly disadvantaged communities is possible. (GR)

Provides one teacher's personal account of an ongoing learning process in a sixth-grade classroom, and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of allowing for diverse interpretations, perspectives, and points of view designed to aid student learning. The dynamic relationship between student initiative and unpredictability that can result in…

Explores the literature from physical education psychomotor research in order to answer questions concerning elementary music psychomotor skills acquisition and retention by focusing on four aspects of motor-learning theories: (1) knowledge of results; (2) contextual interference; (3) cognitive strategies; and (4) modeling. (CMK)

A teacher inservice training program was developed to increase student writing skills in a suburban elementary school. Subjects were 9 teachers and 200 third and fourth grade students. Strategies included implementing demand writing activities into the content area curriculum. For subject students, levels of success were measured by pre-training…

A program developed interventions for improving student writing in the areas of technique and creativity. The targeted population consisted of students in the first through fourth grades in three different school sites, all being similar upper-middle class communities, located in the suburbs of a mid-western city. The problems that some students…

A behavior modification program designed to increase the rate of mathematics homework completion by a learning-disabled student is reported. The 9-year-old subject habitually failed to complete daily math homework assignments and had not responded to a classroom behavior modification program. The subject and teacher created a 3-week contract and…

This booklet for parents offers ideas for utilizing everyday situations in the home to help children improve in school, primarily in reading and mathematics skills. General suggestions are given for helping children to do their best by talking to them, reading to them, listening to them, praising them, watching television with them, keeping them…

In response to the increased movement toward competency-based education, a large urban southeastern school system implemented a Pupil Progression Policy in the 1980-81 school year. This paper reports on the results of a 5-year longitudinal study of the policy's effect on the academic achievement of retained and promoted students who entered first…

School children can learn even more when the school and parents work as a team. Parents can become active members in the school community by attending parent conferences, volunteering, and voting in school elections. Other ways that parents can help the school are by being aware of what their children are learning in school and communicating with…

Two sentence-combining tests and one piece of free writing per student provided the data in a study designed to determine whether the heavy writing emphasis given British children in their elementary years gives them significantly greater writing skill than their counterparts in the United States, who write comparatively infrequently. The data…

This booklet explains the goals of Easter Schools, part of England's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. Easter Schools should be planned to cover four half-days and include four literacy and four mathematics lessons each covering the equivalent of at least an hour. The booklet addresses the following issues: why funding has been made…

The Bridges SOI Model School Program is an educational service based upon the SOI (Structure of Intellect) Model School curriculum. For the middle seven months of the academic year, all students in the program complete brief daily exercises that develop specific cognitive skills delineated in the SOI model. Additionally, intensive individual…

Reports on a study of an improvisation curriculum used with 66 fifth-grade music students. Finds that students who received instruction emphasizing improvisation performed at significantly higher achievement levels than students who did not receive such instruction. (CFR)