The primary purpose of the present research was to explore the relationship of ability and intrinsic motivation in the prediction of job performance. Intrinsic motivation was traced to two primary determinants. One, an organizational factor, is the extent to which an employee's job is "enriched," or incorporates challenging elements such as…

Students who fail to graduate high school prepared to attend a four-year college are much less likely to gain full access to our country's economic, political, and social opportunities. In this study, the authors estimate the percentage of students in the public high school class of 2001 who actually possess the minimum qualifications for applying…

Retention is defined as when a student is required to repeat the grade in which they were enrolled the previous year. This report provides important information on statewide student grade retention statistics, including retention data by grade level, race/ethnicity, gender, in special education status, limited English proficiency status, and…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) States Showing Some Reading Improvements: Early Grades Raise Scores, but Older Students Continue to Struggle; (2)…

Educators are acutely aware of the statistical gaps in achievement between different racial groups. Considering the rapidly changing racial composition of student populations, how can educators reach a level of cultural proficiency necessary to eliminate this disparity? Examining the achievement gap through the prism of race, this comprehensive…

The Council of the Great City Schools has prepared this fifth edition of "Beating the Odds" ("Beating the Odds V)" to give the nation another look at how inner-city schools are performing on the academic goals and standards set by the states for our children. This analysis examines student achievement in math and reading through spring 2004. It…

This study synthesizes current research regarding the nature of the achievement gap in Washington State, root causes and conditions perpetuating the gap, and strategies for closing the gap. It emphasizes the gap between white students and students of color and between students from more affluent backgrounds and their lower-income counterparts.…

This book examines intelligence assessment among ethnic minority children. Part 1, "Foundations," includes: (1) "Historical Issues" (e.g., emergence of intelligence testing in Europe and ideology of the intelligence testing movement); and (2) "Multicultural Perspective of Intelligence: Theory and Measurement Issues"…

This report discusses the findings of a study that gathered descriptive information in the areas of salient student characteristics (e.g., gender, ethnicity, poverty, disability classification), level of participation in general education classes, current level of functioning, student outcomes (e.g., grade point average, performance on state or…

The nation's youth are increasingly affected by violence, both as its perpetrators and as its victims. Many violence prevention programs aim to reverse this trend, but few have been rigorously evaluated, and even fewer have been shown to work. To devise better programs, researchers need more information. To that end, RAND researchers identified…

A recent study of ninth- and tenth-grade dropouts in North Carolina shows that Hispanic adolescents have the highest early dropout rate among the state's largest ethnic groups. This relationship persists when boys and girls are analyzed separately: Hispanic boys are more likely to drop out early than other boys are, and Hispanic girls are more…

Findings from a survey administered to large numbers of grade 7-10 students are presented in this paper. The focus is on the students' attitudes towards the use of computers for the learning of mathematics. Background information was also gathered which allowed the students' responses to be analysed by a range of equity factors--gender, ethnicity,…

University of California Santa Barbara students were surveyed in 1996 to learn about student life and culture in the 1990s. Fifty-five percent of 815 randomly selected undergraduates responded to a mail survey. Responses were grouped according to students' race, gender, and social class. Reasons identified for attending college included: to…

The question of whether internal versus external locus of control for generalized expectancies of reinforcement is an important variable in working with college reentry students was examined in a descriptive study. Subjects were 24 women (9 Caucasians, 7 African Americans, and 8 Hispanic Americans aged 19 to 24 years) enrolled in a proprietary…

These 42 Washington Kids Count summaries, one for each of the state's counties and major metropolitan areas, examine trends in the well-being of Washington's children. The summaries each begin with a report on economic prosperity within the state and the county or region. The statistical portraits are based on indicators in three general areas of…