Closing the racial academic achievement gap is a problem that must be solved in order for future society to properly function. Minorities including African-American and Latino students' standardized test scores are much lower than white students. By the end of fourth grade, African American, Latino, and poor students of all races are two years…

Attitudes toward mathematics and attitudes toward computers were examined for 1,018 grade 8 students and 800 grade 12 students. The female students were more likely than the male students to associate negative attitudes toward mathematics with negative attitudes toward computers. Participation in an eighth-grade mathematics course with a computer…

Monitoring the Future (MTF), which is now in its 36th year, is a research program conducted at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research under a series of investigator-initiated research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The study is comprised of several ongoing series of annual surveys of nationally representative…

The objectives of this project were to construct two sets of balanced repeated replication (BRR) weights for two National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) sets of weights: one based on the third follow-up survey done in 1994 (NELS88:94); and the second based on the fourth follow-up survey done in 2000 (NELS88:2000). These weights are…

GRADES OR AGES: Grades 7-12. SUBJECT MATTER: Health Education. ORGANIZATION AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: The introductory material for both junior and senior high suggests a time schedule for the major units and presents a program overview. The text is divided into four columns: basic concepts, learning experiences, expected outcomes, and references.…

The purpose of this report is to increase understanding of the achievement levels for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), what they are, and what they are not. NAEP is a survey of American students' knowledge and skills in different subjects at grades 4, 8, and 12. NAEP combines the samples of performances to provide…

Conducted three controlled studies involving progressive relaxation (PR). Subjects included 40 tenth graders (Study 1), 113 eighth graders (Study 2), and 30 eleventh and twelfth graders (Study 3). Found regular practice with PR produced reductions in both physiological and paper-and-pencil dependent measures; expectancy effects could result in…

Interviews 8th- and 12th-grade adolescent tobacco users, as part of a larger study on adolescents' reasons for tobacco use. Finds that: students perceive school systems to be hypocritical and to be sending contradictory messages regarding the use of tobacco; and the reward/punishment structure of public school systems may not be effective in…

This paper presents a secondary analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) dataset. The study explores differences in the NAEP fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade reading scores by students' gender across the years 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2003. The study used the NAEP National Public School data. The statistically…

This policy research document is intended for Arkansas policymakers to use when examining possible changes to the Arkansas state assessment's alignment with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The 2009 NAEP test is not yet in existence, so the purpose of this report is to give policymakers a head start in determining where they…

The Monitoring the Future study has provided the nation with a window into the important, but largely hidden, problem behaviors of illicit drug use, alcohol use, and tobacco use. It has provided a clearer view of the changing topography of these problems among adolescents and adults, a better understanding of the dynamics of factors that drive…

The study explored the relationship of self-concept and locus of control to science engagement and science achievement. Furthermore, the relationship of self variables with science engagement and science achievement was studied across ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). The data were accessed from the 3 waves of the National…

GRADES OR AGES: Grades 7-12. SUBJECT MATTER: Physical education, including team sports, stunts, tumbling and gymnastics, track and field, swimming, individual and dual sports, physical education for the handicapped, outdoor education, and rhythmic activities. ORGANIZATION AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: The guide is divided into 16 chapters, each of…

To analyze smoking behavior among students, used cross-sectional data from a multiethnic cohort of 5th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students (N=368) so as to examine the psychometric properties of two Transtheoretical Model of Change scales. Findings support the concurrent validity of the scales. (RJM)

The search for an understandable reporting format has led the National Assessment Governing Board to explore the possibility of measuring and interpreting student performance on the 12th-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Nation's Report Card, in terms of readiness for college, the workplace, and the military. This…