A series of tables presents information about trends in educational data from West Virginia from 1993-94 through 1997-98. Data are organized into the following categories: (1) Advanced Placement Test information; (2) American College Testing scores; (3) attendance rate; (4) average class size; (5) classrooms with split grades; (6) dropout rate;…

This study examined the effect of specified demographic and psychological variables on the academic achievement of high school students from urban and rural settings (n=177). Psychosocial variables considered in this study were familism (perceived closeness of the family), perceived discrimination, time management, and home and school factors.…

Explains why Immaculate Conception Cathedral High School adopted the demanding liberal arts curriculum of the International Baccalaureate Program. (SJL)

Many high schools offer the Advanced Placement Program of college level courses validated by external examinations. This program was supplemented eight years ago by the College Level Examination Program designed to measure nontraditional learning, opening a new field of academic gamesmanship. The following article describes these games. (Author)

Describes challenges facing College Board's efforts to expand Advanced Placement (A.P.) courses to provide equal access to previously underserved low-performing urban and rural school students while maintaining the program's high academic standards. Includes list of strategies school boards can use to achieve greater access to A.P. courses while…

Highlights the strengths of the Advanced Placement American Government and Politics program and observes the program produces students who do well in college. Mentions a major weakness is the educational background of the instructors, and recommends using summer teaching institutes to ensure a minimal level of competency. (NL)

Describes how an intensive journalistic writing course motivated students by combining journalistic writing with a school-history research project. (MM)

A college-level introductory psychology course was completed by gifted adolescents. Post-course and remote-post-course measures for the 100 participants and controls demonstrated that knowledge gain from course participation was substantial and long-lived, affecting the quality of the students' understanding, their ability to generalize and apply…

Fitting item response models to data from 2 Advanced Placement exams (18,462 and 82,842 students) demonstrates that constructed response items add little to information provided by multiple choice and that scoring on the basis of student item selection gives almost as much information as scoring on the basis of answers. (SLD)

Five essays among those judged to be excellent in the 1995 Advanced Placement Examinations are presented. Each is a timed essay, and for each, the test question and time limit are given. Subject areas include art history, psychology, comparative government and politics, and English literature and composition. (MSE)

Presents five examples of the use of satellite technology in distance learning, including providing previously unavailable classes, interacting with teachers, and transmitting tests and returning graded work; partnerships between schools and community-based organizations; middle school and high school interaction; advanced placement classes; and…

Random samples of free-response tests (200 males and 200 females) were taken from the 1986 U.S. History advanced placement examination. Rescoring focusing on historical content and analyses indicate that free-response tasks, in contrast with objective tests, may have inherent characteristics that reward females' English-composition abilities. (SLD)

Some states are passing laws encouraging wider use of high school advanced placement courses and testing for college credit, with others offering less extensive support. Academic quality, competitiveness, and fiscal efficiency are objectives. Critics cite fairness questions and concerns about the appropriateness of skills tested by the equivalency…

Describes using a local college for the teaching of the recommended Advance Placement laboratories as a way to increase greatly needed course time and to increase the amount of equipment available. (PR)

Describes a project using city and town archives to explore important issues in U.S. history for Advanced Placement American history courses. Relates how town death, birth, or marriage records can be used by students as the stimuli for research projects on larger trends in demographic, social, or political history. (DSK)