This final report describes a study which examined how new college students become aware of and involved in the academic and non-academic "learning communities" of the campus; specifically the report examined the social, academic and administrative mechanisms and processes through which students become involved in academic and social…

Little is known about how students become involved in the various dimensions of student change and development as they make the transition from work or high school to college. This paper describes the results of a series of focus-group interviews with 132 diverse, new students entering either a community college; a liberal arts college; an urban,…

This poster presentation examined the structure of Japanese elementary school children's social support systems to demonstrate how they are related to: (1) academic achievement; (2) teacher evaluations; and (3) the children's own sense of self-esteem. A total of 91 fifth and sixth graders, along with their teachers, were interviewed and surveyed.…

Previous research on the difficulties faced by community college students transferring to four-year institutions has suggested that community colleges inadequately prepare students for the academic environment of their new institution. To examine transfer students' perceptions of their academic experiences and the causes of difficulties,…

An ethnographic study examined how learning English and becoming more literate in the dominant discourse affects the identity or self-concept of Vietnamese immigrant students, and how new discourse may be created as students negotiate multiple literacies. It was conducted in a Seattle area high school and focused on 22 Vietnamese students in an…

The purpose of this study is to find out from transfer students exactly what they are afraid of or nervous about when they start over in a new school and examines the implications these anxieties may have for teachers. During the transition, transfer students often suffer social, academic, and emotional distress which can impede their adjustment…

Between 1991 and 1993, a statewide study of public preschool practices in North Carolina was conducted to determine the characteristics of pre-kindergarten programs and of the children and families they served; short-term outcomes for children; and kindergarten outcomes for children who attended public preschool compared to those with other…

Graduate programs were developed cooperatively by several U.S. universities and the Iranian Ministry of Education in response to the critical shortage of Iranian teachers and educational administrators. A variety of administrative, logistical, academic, and cultural problems were encountered in bringing mid-career educators to the United States to…

Objectively speaking, there has been great historical progress in the educational and developmental opportunities for children and adolescents. However, this progress is not reflected either in an actual improvement of the "qualify of life" or in the subjectively perceived chances of education of adolescents in and out of school.…

A 2-year ethnographic study of the intake process involving preschool-age Hispanic children at a school for the deaf formed the basis for this paper, which focuses on strategies that Hispanic hearing-impaired children develop in response to the sociocultural world of the classroom. The struggle for "ownership" of the child, which begins when the…

In an inter-institutional action research project, seven teachers from three high schools and two colleges in Canada interviewed 88 students as they looked forward to college, experienced the first semester, and looked back after the second semester. The purpose was to discover what student perceptions and what institutional policies and practices…

This guide contains a minicourse based upon the content of "About the Middle School Years, Book 3" of the Educational Opportunities in Virginia publications. The minicourse has been designed to help students, with the involvement of their parents, to begin planning for their middle school education. Included in this guide is a sequential…

Concern for the dropout phenomenon among secondary learning disabled (LD) students led to a preliminary study of an urban school's decision-making structures, as well as events that influence ninth graders' behavior and decisions, increasing their risk for dropping out of high school. Data were collected from three sources: observation of school…

The focus of these two reports is on students who transferred from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), and who were studied as a part of the Maryland Longitudinal Study. Results found included the following: (1) transfers in the Representative Group (containing members of all ethnic groups) were equally likely to be male or female; in…

College student persistence and overall educational attainment were studied, based on data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Attention was directed to the influence of student socioeconomic status, academic aptitude and preparation, educational goal commitment, college quality/selectivity, college orientation…