To relieve overcrowded, distracting, and uncomfortable testing conditions, the Dade County (Florida) Public Schools began administering the High School Competency Test on two successive Saturdays, instead of on school days. Classrooms were used, and students received free breakfasts and lunches. The new arrangement improved student performance and…

Conceptions of (n=13) grade-11 chemistry students via interviews were grouped into 6 categories related to students' preferred explanations for solubility phenomena. Argues that an understanding of the typical conceptions used by students should form an integral component of chemistry teaching, both as points of origin for lesson planning and for…

Interviews with parents of 11th graders enrolled in a required, untracked American studies course reveal that parents' perspectives are not easily understood. Principals should beware of survey data and superficial feedback, resist focusing only on outcomes, and conceive of parents as learners. Principals can transform traditional meetings with…

Replicates an earlier study in which students read versions of passages rewritten by composition instructors, text linguists, or Time-Life writers. Finds that the composition instructor's revisions were the most effective. Points out methodological lessons learned. Comments on some conclusions on improving textbook design and the measures used in…

Compares the preferred prewriting invention strategies of advanced, average, and basic ability eleventh grade writers. Finds that freewriting was used most frequently by the total group of students as well as when advanced students' and average students' responses were considered separately. Includes comparisons of preferences by level of student…

High school students (n=80) read two passages from each of three domains of career literature: short stories, formal literature, and popular literature. Both reading skill and cognitive development were related to extent to which adolescents appreciated three passages which presented career information. Reported need for information to make career…

Describes the Los Angeles Urbanscape Tour, in which the city of Los Angeles provides 11th graders with a living laboratory of the principles studied in-depth in their literature and social studies classrooms. Describes writing assignments which grew out of the tour. (SR)

Surveyed 189 eleventh graders to assess attitudes toward war in general and attitudes toward Persian Gulf War. Reactions to war were associated with gender, race, and school setting. Students in study were slightly less supportive of war, in general, but more supportive of Gulf War than were past subjects on conflicts of their day (Vietnam and…

After investigating characteristics of students' writing that contributed to their passing or failing a university writing competence examination, researchers designed and implemented instruction to help college-bound 11th graders develop appropriate writing skills. Analysis of students' pre- and postintervention writing indicated that the…

Survey responses from 665 11th graders identified 10 leading causes of student anxiety during high school-to-college transition. Eleventh graders (N=40) participated in an intervention program to address the identified causes. Results indicate an overall reduction in student anxiety following the intervention program. (Author/MKA)

Describes and evaluates Youth Leadership Broward, a Leadership training program provided for approximately 50 outstanding Broward County (Florida) juniors each year. Funded primarily by business, YLB is an eight-month program of structured activities that increases participants' knowledge of current issues and community resources and helps develop…

Relates how the author came into a generally contentious classroom of eleventh-grade developmental English students and how it became a place of cooperative reading and writing and critiquing through a democratic approach and a three-week project in which students wrote a fictional story via letter writing. Notes student's involvement and…

Equating multiple test forms is frequently desired. When multiple forms are linked in a chain of equating, error tends to build up in the process. This paper compares three procedures for equating multiple forms in a common-form design where each school administered, in a spiraled fashion, only a subset of multiple forms. Data used were from a…

To improve student performance, educators have recently adopted non-traditional classroom practices. Yet, as media reports and some research indicate, parents may favor traditional practices. A descriptive case study examined the beliefs of a representative sample of 25 parents of students in grade 11 who studied English in a…

In the last few years educational researchers have become increasingly aware of the need to examine interaction among students to understand the impact of cooperative small groups on learning. For this study 26 students in an 11th-grade Algebra II/Trigonometry class were trained to use a didactic cooperative learning technique called scripted…