The primary aims of this report are to (1) identify the incidence of daily smoking at several time points during the adolescent and young adult years, including the prevalence of new daily smokers relative to repeat daily smokers; (2) identify several specific developmental patterns of smoking; and (3) examine the specific developmental patterns…

Analysis of 19 language features in impromptu essays written by 96 students (half males, half females) from grades 4, 8, and 12 enabled researchers to identify the gender of the writer 84-87 percent of the time. Further analyses established a relationship between this "gender-linked language effect" and subjective attributional ratings by…

An analysis was carried out to examine the relative effect of being in a single-parent, mother-only or father-only family for African-American girls in 8th grade in 1988 on 12th grade educational achievements in 1992 and two years after high school in 1994. The result showed that for these African-American girls parental configuration was not as…

This study examines question asking about "causal" relations when students read scientific texts. We examine the influence of the length of causal chains and the knowledge of readers. Students from grades 8 and 12 read two short paragraphs that described natural phenomena. Length of the causal chain linking cause and effect in two key sentences…

The belief that schools can play a powerful role in preventing tobacco use among adolescents has led to the implementation of various tobacco-related polices and practices. This study examines the association between school policies regarding monitoring student behavior, severity of action taken for infraction of policies, and tobacco use by…

This article reports on the Pittsburgh Public Schools Oral Ratings Assessment for Language Students (PPS ORALS) project, a Title VI Foreign Language Assistance Program grant-funded project to create an online testing Software program that makes large-scale oral testing in a world language not only feasible, but also easy to create, administer, and…

Substance use by American young people has proven to be a rapidly-changing phenomenon, requiring frequent assessments and reassessments. Since the mid-1960s it has remained a major concern for the nation. Smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use are leading causes of morbidity and mortality, both during adolescence as well as later in life. How…

The annual event dropout rate describes the proportion of students who leave school each year without completing a high school program. The event dropout rates for the school year 2004-2005 of 1.68% for grades 7 through 12th and 2.40% for grades 9 through 12th are at the lowest levels in the past ten years. The event completion/graduation rate…

This analysis uses data on science achievement and transcript reports of science course taking patterns of students from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) to estimate the relationship between science course taking and the change in science proficiency levels between 8th and 12th grades. It also explores the extent to…

This research report provides information about the school context for learning mathematics and highlights some factors that National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) analyses have found to be associated with effective schooling. Approximately 26,000 4th, 8th, and 12th graders in 1,500 public and private schools participated in the…

GRADES OR AGES: Grades 6-12. SUBJECT MATTER: French language, literature, and civilization. ORGANIZATION AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: The guide is divided into seven sections, one for each grade. Each section is in list form. It is mimeographed and spiral bound with a paper cover. OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES: Each section lists several general…

TWO METHODS OF RESPONSE DESCRIBED BY PIAGET AND INHELDER FOR DRAWING APPROPRIATE BOUNDARIES AND SELECTING APPROPRIATE PREDRAWN BOUNDARIES FOR HYPOTHETICALLY CUT, SOLID GEOMETRIC FIGURES WERE INVESTIGATED TO SEE WHETHER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS COULD RESPOND IN APPROPRIATELY TO THE MATHEMATICAL TASKS. THE RESPONSES OF 8TH-, 10TH-, AND 12TH-GRADE…

Comparisons are given for data from the Second International Study for both eighth- and eleventh-grade students in the United States and Japan. U.S. students were closer to Japanese students at the eighth-grade level than at the twelfth-grade level; differences have increased since the First International Study. (MNS)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a survey of U.S. student knowledge and skills in different subjects at grades four, eight, and 12. NAEP combines samples of performances to provide information about the knowledge and skills of students in the United States as a whole, in each participating state, and in different…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a survey of U.S. student knowledge and skills in different subjects at grades four, eight, and 12. NAEP combines samples of performances to provide information about the knowledge and skills of students in the United States as a whole, in each participating state, and in different…