A study examined the role of prior knowledge in teacher-generated analogies and student-generated analogies that convey the concept of protein synthesis. Subjects were 269 eighth-grade students enrolled in a public school district in a northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Subjects were divided into groups that received traditional instruction,…

This report describes a program for improving motivation in eighth grade, first-year Spanish classes in a growing middle and upper class, predominantly Caucasian suburban community of northern Illinois. Survey results confirmed that students' enthusiasm for foreign language study decreased dramatically once the novelty of learning Spanish had worn…

An action research report described a program for enhancing students' ability to focus on instructional processes and oral directions. The targeted population was comprised of 4th-, 5th-, and 8th-grade students from 3 different metropolitan schools in southwest Cook County, Illinois. The problem of off-task behavior, including distractible…

THE MOTION PICTURE, RADIO, AND TELEVISION ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WERE ASCERTAINED TO DETERMINE POSSIBILITIES FOR BETTER EDUCATIONAL UTILIZATION OF THESE MEDIA. THIS PROJECT WAS CONDUCTED AS A SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITY TO COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT 367, "A STUDY OF INTERESTS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH" (ED 002…

THE FREQUENCY AND INFLUENCES OF VOCATIONAL TYPE PREFERENCES AMONG APPROXIMATELY 350 SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADERS WERE DETERMINED DURING THIS STUDY. PROJECT ACTIVITIES WERE CONDUCTED AS SUPPLEMENTARY TO COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT NO. 367, "A STUDY OF INTERESTS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH," AND WERE REPORTED IN A DOCTORAL DISSERTATION. DATA WERE…

Presented is an overview of the 1979 Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP) for eighth-grade mathematics. The IIEP is a systematic effort by the Illinois State Board of Education to collect information on the educational achievement of Illinois students in certain areas and to make that information available to educational…

This paper examines levels of participation in and correlates of AIDS-related risk behavior for adolescents in high risk communities. Seventh through ninth graders completed surveys regarding attitudes, behaviors, and resistance skills related to sexual intercourse and substance use. Grade, race, and sexual activity correlated with drug use.…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in the NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments (37 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands) were made. The sample was designed to represent the 8th grade public school population in a state…

A social skills training program for improving student behavior in art and music classes and in unstructured situations was developed and implemented during the second quarter of the 1993-1994 school year in two schools in Elgin, Illinois. The targeted classes included grades six through eight at St. Laurence School (part of the Rockford Catholic…

The following papers from the National Association of State Scholarship and Grant Programs/National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs conference on student aid are provided: (1) "The Employees Tuition Benefit Programs of the Fortune 1000 Companies: Summary of Survey Results" (Joseph P. O'Neill); (2) "The Interaction of…