A complete history is provided of the Phi Beta Kappa society, tracing its growth from a local debating club to a national organization which today boasts a quarter of a million members. The history charts the society's development and reveals the friction over the shift away from the classics toward liberal education and the electives system, the…

Suggests that community colleges have always offered programs designed to encourage the enrollment of high ability students, including formal honors programs, honors courses or societies, tuition incentives, and opportunities for independent study. Cites ERIC documents and journal articles reflecting the current literature on honors programs…

Describes a competition involving political science honors students in which teams from Miami and Purdue universities prepared and delivered papers taking opposing positions on contemporary topics. Reviews the benefits of the project for students and their teachers and suggests ways similar benefits can be achieved using a student cluster approach…

Describes the Tri-M Music Honor Society that is for middle/junior high and senior high school students. Discusses what having a Tri-M Society can do for a music department and the benefits of having a Tri-M Society. Includes information on starting the society, a history, and Web sites. (CMK)

Purpose: To detail a user's experiences of the digital archive project of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS-IBG). The "Unlocking the Archives" project has five facets: construction and conservation at its London archives; an online catalogue of its collections; digitisation of images and…

One of the requirements of the Epsilon Pi Tau (EPT) initiation is the apprentice has to physically be at the initiation (EPT, 2004). Since the majority of nontraditional students and working professionals are physically removed from an initiation site, they have missed the opportunity to join EPT. On 8 April, 2005, the Beta Mu Chapter of The…

Honors programs are not a major part of the community college curriculum due to the colleges' focus on providing access to nontraditional students, as well as the feeling of some community college educators that honors programs are inherently elitist. A 1975 survey found that only 47 of 644 responding institutions had formalized honors programs. A…

The concurrent criterion validity of a modified pass/fail grading system in a medical school was assessed. The investigators examined possible differences between honor society and nonhonor society students on three medical school entry variables and on medical board scores. (Author/JKS)

Drawing from a 1984 survey conducted by Moraine Valley Community College, this report provides composite and individual descriptions of 19 community college honors programs. Section I provides an overview of the survey on community college honors programs, which sought information on the organization of the program; the curriculum; and honors…

In late 1980, a study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) to determine how well the college was meeting the needs of its academically superior students. Questionnaires were sent to four groups of students enrolled in fall 1979: Scholar's Grant students, who ranked in the top 10% of their graduating high school class; Phi Theta…

This report describes results of a study of secondary school student participation in extracurricular activities. The activity offerings were identified and classified into eleven groups: 1) class-related, 2) athletics, 3) music, 4) school services, 5) drama, 6) school publications, 7) personal interests, 8) honor, 9) student government, 10)…

A study conducted at Alma College to determine how and why grade inflation occurred is discussed. Grade inflation is seen as being caused by many factors including calendar changes, requirement reductions, better defined grading scales, and shifts in faculty attitudes. (MLW)

Itwamba Community College is attempting to develop and implement a comprehensive honors program by the 2000-2001 academic year. The first students to graduate from the honors program will do so in May of 2001. In order to graduate with honors students must: (1) meet all of the requirements for a two-year degree with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or…

A study of the quality of undergraduate education at Arizona's three public universities is presented as a working paper in the final report of the Arizona Board of Regents' Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and Competitiveness. The honors programs at each university are reviewed and evaluated, with recommendations made for improving the…

The professional and personal characteristics of individuals who held the top elected leadership positions in local chapters of Phi Delta Kappa during 1979-80 were surveyed. In addition, the relationships between sex, marital status, age, level of educational degree, level of employment, type of employment, and scholarly and professional…