This report presents data from the 1988 National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88), which started with an eighth grade cohort and aimed to provide data on dropout experiences as students made the transition into high school and to examine the contextual school and family factors associated with dropping out. The report offers extensive…

A 5-year followup study was conducted of students who had participated in the 1987 Every Secondary Student Survey of the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) public schools. In the 1987-88 school year, 4,077 Toronto students started grade 9. By the followup year, 56 percent graduated with diplomas or completed 30 or more secondary credits. Eleven percent had…

As part of the formulation of a new multidisciplinary civics curriculum for students in grades 8 and 9, a major national conference on the future of civic education was conceived, on the premise that early adolescence is an especially appropriate time to introduce the fundamental ideas of a democratic society. This volume contains the…

Information is provided for educators and the general public about the performance of students on the standardized tests administered in 1990 as part of the South Carolina Norm-Referenced Testing (SCNRT) Program. The first section of this report provides background information necessary for interpretation of the results. The second section reports…

An evaluation of Manitoba's French immersion programs at the levels of grades 3, 6, and 9 focused on program effectiveness in teaching listening comprehension and speech skills. The results for grade 9 are presented here. The first section describes the framework of the immersion curriculum and the listening and oral skills targeted in it. The…

Scheduling concerns such as how to keep instructors teaching in the areas for which they are qualified and how to allow for elective offerings in a student's schedule led North Cache Middle School, a year-round education school serving grades 8 and 9 in Richmond, Utah, to explore a number of solutions. Seven solutions are examined along with…

This document presents a curriculum unit in family life education for students in grades 7 through 9 that encompasses learning about human sexuality, interpersonal relationships, and roles within the family. The unit is designed to attain the following goals: (1) to help students gain a detailed knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, and uniqueness…

Descriptive data were collected from male and female students in grades 7, 9, and 11 on five learner attributes commonly reported as influencing student learning and/or motivation: desire for approval of others, attribution of success or failure, desire for challenge in academic settings, perceived self-competence in school settings, and locus of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using conceptual change texts accompanied with small group work on ninth grade students' learning of ecology. The developed texts were constructed to remediation of students' misconceptions with accommodated new ones about ecology. Conceptual change texts were implemented in an…

Ninth grade results from the April 1989 administration of the New Jersey High School Proficiency Test (HSPT) are reported. Passing the HSPT, which consists of reading, writing, and mathematics sections, is a high school graduation requirement in New Jersey. In 1989, the HSPT was administered to 67,099 ninth, 6,352 10th, 3,018 11th, and 762 12th…

An brief overview of the Achievement Testing Program conducted by Alberta Education (AE) during 1980-90 is provided. The program provides AE, jurisdictions, schools, and the public with information about students' knowledge and skills in relation to objectives in the provincial program of studies. Program tests are administered every 4 years on a…

Three groups of secondary school students were identified in the sample of over 7,000 high school students from the 1987/88 California Substance Use Survey based on patterns of involvement with alcohol and other drugs. Of primary interest are high risk users (HRUs) who engage in socially deplored and often dangerous forms of substance use. HRU…

Using a theater arts thematic approach to demonstrate ways listening, speaking, and writing activities can be built around the study of works of literature, this guide presents activities and sample lessons to help students develop an awareness of the interrelationships between performance and the language arts. Following an introduction, the…

This document reports the provincial results of the June 1986 student achievement tests in Alberta in grade 3 mathematics, grade 6 science, and grade 9 English language arts. The achievement tests are specific to the program of studies prescribed by the Minister of Education. The document starts with general information about the testing program…

The Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) was developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in response to Texas House Bill 72 (1984), which mandated a new basic skills assessment program for mathematics, reading, and writing at grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. This is one in a series of Instructional Strategies Guides designed to…