This document consists of a student resource book entitled "CAAP in Action: The Environment" and an instructor guide entitled "CAAP in Action". CAAP is a program developed by the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic education organizations, in cooperation with the National Association of Elementary School…

This curriculum guide, the fourth in a set of six, contains teacher and student materials for a unit on mechanical engineering prepared as part of a seventh- and eighth-grade agricultural science curriculum that is integrated with science instruction. The guide contains the state goals and sample learning objectives for each goal for students in…

Research suggests that adolescents as young as 13 years old reason about such abstract rights as freedom of speech and religion. It is unclear whether such reasoning develops earlier. Also unclear is the role of adults as agents in inculating in children the adults' views on such rights. A study examined 184 Canadian students in the first, third,…

This curriculum, directed primarily to students in grades seven and eight, is a five-week sexuality education program designed to promote sexual abstinence as the best decision young people can make for themselves. The guide is divided into three general areas of emphasis. These sections are divided into six units that focus the content of the…

An attempt to add substance to history, the curriculum guide for grades 7-8 presents in 12 culture guides information on American Indians for teachers to use as supplement materials to social studies texts. Each culture guide is accompanied with a teacher guide offering activities or discussion/quiz questions. Topics of culture guides encompass…

Intended to acquaint fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade children with the concept of culture, this anthropology unit focuses on two groups of Indians who lived in prehistoric times and present-day non-Indian families living in the Midwest. Objectives are to help students understand the behavior of the Northwest Pacific Coast Indians, the Hopi…

Intended for use as a resource in the planning and delivery of career education, this guide contains instructional activities for grades 6, 7, and 8. Materials are divided into the three grade levels. Each section begins with a listing of career education objectives and behaviors. Learning activities are provided that correspond to the behaviors…

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…

The progress of sixth-graders in elementary and middle schools was compared in terms of achievement test scores, attendance, discipline, and grade point average. Three groups of sixth-graders from the Austin schools were examined: (1) 1987-88 sixth-graders for 3 years (grades 6, 7, and 8); (2) 1988-89 sixth-graders for 2 years (grades 6 and 7);…

In the 21st century, the population will need to possess basic skills in the areas of communication and higher problem-solving as well as have scientific and technological literacy; however, results from assessments by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have indicated weak student performance in the area of thinking skills,…

The City of Chicago's curriculum guide for public school Spanish native language instruction in grades 7, 8, and 9 has two sections, one in English and a corresponding one in Spanish. The program is primarily, though not exclusively, oriented toward the large Mexican immigrant community in the city with varied academic skills and experience with…

The official curriculum for the second three years (seventh, eighth, and ninth grades) of the Manitoba Department of Education's nine-year core French language program is presented. The guide, intended for teachers, outlines the program's curriculum committee membership, program requirements, philosophy, objectives, content, recommended…

A critical ingredient for understanding the experiences that students undergo in the transition from elementary school to junior high school is the students' changing perceptions. The Ecological Perspectives for Successful Schooling Practice Junior High School Transition Study tapped the perceptions of students in transition using data from two…

Written in response to requests from local school districts in New York State, this document provides information about the middle grades (grades 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) and the changing nature of students in these grades. The first section reports results of studies on this difficult developmental period that were conducted by three New York school…

This report describes an exemplary Oregon middle school that incorporates a comprehensive program of academic instruction and activity, a community of dedicated staff and involved students, and an orderly environment marked by a businesslike approach to teaching and learning. Outstanding components of Philomath Middle School's climate for learning…