This practicum was designed to increase concept mastery of 11th grade chemistry students by improving instruction, motivation, and writing skills. The problem addressed was that many chemistry students, perform well in group learning situations, such as labs, but perform poorly on content-mastery tests. As a result of reviewing the literature, the…

Tested family systems propositions as applied to career development by examining the relationship between family members' perceptions of family functioning and career development measures. Results showed family functioning dimensions as evaluated by eleventh graders (n=215) and their parents were more frequent and stronger predictors of career…

Discusses the importance of the junior year in high school and indicates that it should be spent refining and strengthening career goals. Describes a workplace readiness class where juniors learn about skills they will need in the real work such as work ethics and interviewing techniques. (JOW)

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 2005-2006 of 1.99% for grades 7 through 12th and 2.85% for grades 9 through 12th are consistent with the dropout rates for the past four years. The event completion rate…

The Social Studies Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) was designed to be administered in three sessions, two of which use items specifically developed for Missouri from Missouri teachers and one of which uses selected portions of the nationally normed Terra Nova Test, developed by CTB/McGraw-Hill. Anchor papers for constructed-response items were…

Analyzed trends of drug use as reported by four cohorts of 11th graders at three-year intervals between 1977 and 1986. Most salient trend was progressively higher percentages in perceived harmfulness of drugs. Higher percentages of health risk factors connected with various categories of drug use were not associated with significant trend of…

Students and teachers in Pierce School District in Arbuckle, California, re-enacted an 1840s wagon train. Staff and students dressed authentically, turning thrift-store outfits into period garb. The 4-day simulation instilled knowledge in students and helped them think more critically. True instructional innovation comes from the bottom up. (MLH)

In this Issue Brief, differences in the average number of course credits earned between high school graduates and dropouts, both within and accumulated across academic years, are examined in order to describe enrollment and completion behavior of high school graduates and dropouts. Differences in course credit accrual by selected subjects…

This investigation was performed to determine if different methods of evaluating homework would produce a noticeable difference in unit test performance. Two different high school math classes were given a traditional homework assignment for a 6-week period and then were given a five question mastery check the next 6-week period. The average test…

The handwriting of 756 eleventh grade students was evaluated to determine whether their handwriting styles would be characteristic of the manuscript or cursive styles they had been taught. Subjects had been taught Zaner-Bloser manuscript in primary grades with a transition to cursive in third grade. Analysis of handwriting samples revealed a wide…

The acquisition by preadolescent and late adolescent students of two kinds of information from brief texts was assessed: premise information and inference information. Age differences were obtained in inference performance. However, when the texts provided sufficient contextual support, the inference performance of preadolescents was equivalent to…

In the four-school stratified sample of eleventh graders, the females scored significantly higher in vocational attitude. For both sexes, the relationship between overall self-esteem level and vocational attitude maturity was significant. The self-concept variables contributing to vocational attitude maturity in each sex were identified.…

Investigated relationship of career goal and self-esteem among 221 high school sophomores and juniors. Students completed Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; teachers rated students' self-esteem using Self-Esteem Rating Scale for Children. Found that, on both instruments, adolescents with some career goals had significantly higher self-esteem than did…

Some aspects of the relationships among the symbolic representations (Rs) of problems given to students to solve, the Rs that students use to solve problems, and the accuracy of the solutions were studied. Focus was on determining: the mental Rs that students used while solving problems, the kinds of translation that takes place, the accuracy of…

Thirty eleventh-grade students were the subjects of a study to determine whether a person reporting a high degree of mental imagery in reading would also score well on comprehension tests and report a positive attitude toward reading. Subjects were first given the Estes Reading Attitude Scale, the results of which indicated no significant…