Describes an alternative program for ninth-graders "having adjustment problems." The voluntary program includes simple and consistent classroom rules, frequent graded assignments, and a focus on relevance to students' life experiences; students are encouraged to do schoolwork through a system of group rewards. (MCG)

Focus groups were used to examine ninth graders' participation in school nutrition programs, their opinions about the programs, and suggestions for improvements. Students expressed intense dislike and distrust of school meals. Suggestions for improvement included improving food's taste and appearance, serving a wider variety and more fresh fruits…

Describes two-day special course on study skills taught by counselors in second week of school. Explains material and exercises used and provides summary of the course, which is appropriate for junior and senior high school students. Concludes that course demonstrates to students that administrators, counselors, teachers, and parents are committed…

In this experimental orientation program, peer groups work with potential high school freshmen while they are still in the eighth grade, so that transition to high school will be easier. Groups consisting of two student leaders, and 10 to 15 eighth graders, meet for three 45-minute sessions, and engage in various orientation, visiting day, and…

The viability of the Partial Credit Model (PCM) of G. N. Masters (1982) for scaling and banking individual essay prompts from a statewide writing assessment program was investigated. Preliminary analyses indicated the feasibility of using the PCM, the general polychotomous form of the Rasch model, with essay data from the Maryland Writing Test…

This quasi-experiment was designed to assess Robert Slavin's challenge to research on the effects of mastery learning on student achievement in algebra. Focus was on determining if there would be a difference in mathematics achievement between an experimental group (EG) of students whose initial cognitive entry skills were enhanced and who were…

Describes the use of a modified version of the I-Search writing process for a high school freshman English research paper. Topics include collaboration between the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian, student journals, research strategies, problem solving, recognizing bias and opinions in sources, student assessments, and teacher…

Four operational null hypotheses were assessed in a study of ninth graders placed in junior high schools (grades 7 through 9) or senior high schools (grades 9 through 12). The hypotheses state that there would be no significant differences in: (1) the mean number of extracurricular activities (EAs) in which ninth graders participated, whether in…

Open-ended questions and semistructured interviews were used to investigate the psychosocial learning environment among (n=35) grade-nine mathematics students in Hong Kong. The Mathematics Classroom Environment Scale has eight dimensions: enjoyability; order; involvement; achievement orientation; teacher led; teacher support; teacher involvement;…