Steele and Aronson (1995) found that the performance of African-American subjects on test items portrayed as a problem-solving task, in a laboratory experiment, was adversely affected when they were asked about their ethnicity. This outcome was attributed to "stereotype threat". Performance was disrupted by the subjects' concerns about…

This report summarizes the 2000-2001 program evaluation results of AISD's AVID program, a program designed to help underachieving students with academic potential prepare for entrance into colleges and universities.

Discusses a survey of 56 advanced placement (AP) U.S. history teachers. Explores the scope of AP history and types of posttest activities used after Advanced Placement examinations. Concludes that public school courses developed more deeply into post-1960 events than the private schools did. Describes movies, debates, simulations, and local…

Examines the approach of the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) Program to curricular development and assessment using the framework of D. Massell for agenda setting for content standards. Opportunities and constraints applicable to the current national standards movement are discussed. The AP program clearly meets capacity building and…

"The Achiever" is a monthly newsletter designed expressly for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. The highlights of this issue include: (1) Report Finds U.S. Higher Education in Need of Change; (2) Meeting a Critical Need: Foreign Languages, Academic Rigor…

As part of a project on assessing deep understanding of subject matter, a study was conducted to assess students' knowledge of history by focusing on essay writing. Reading a provided text was incorporated into the assessment procedure. Ratings from five high school history teachers were compared with those of four English teachers for 85 essays…

The purpose of this study was to examine patterns with regard to six advanced high school mathematics courses 12th-grade students who took the American College Testing (ACT) assessment had taken between 1987 and 1997. Differences in performance on the ACT mathematics test were studied with respect to mathematics courses taken, gender,…

This report presents results from Phase 2 of an ongoing Utah State Office of Education project titled "Preliminary Study of Proficiency Based Credit Testing in Utah Public Schools." Proficiency-based credit assessment (PBCA) means awarding secondary school academic credit to students considered proficient in the area without having taken…

The Postsecondary Enrollment Options Program (PSEO) allows 11th and 12th grade public school students to attend Minnesota postsecondary institutions at state expense. Students receive high school credit for courses successfully completed and may apply for postsecondary credit for the same courses when entering college after high school graduation.…

The college careers of students who had participated in the Advanced Placement Program (AP) in secondary school were studied, based on extensive information on 4,814 students who participated in the Personal Qualities Project, a longitudinal study in nine colleges and universities. The project included information on 1,115 AP and 3,699 non-AP…

This curriculum guide describes in detail the Typing I and II curriculum at Fitch Senior High School, Groton, Connecticut, that can be taken for six hours of credit at Mohegan Community College. The articulated course was developed by a committee of teachers from both schools. For each typing course, the following information is provided: course…

Progress toward meeting the recommendations for quality improvements made by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) in 1981 in "The Need for Quality" is reviewed, and suggestions for state actions to improve undergraduate education in the SREB states are offered. High school graduation requirements in SREB states are identified,…

Approaches to cooperation between colleges and schools in serving students capable of advanced work are examined. Two major ways of serving bright high school students within their own schools in coordination with colleges are: programs developed by individual colleges with particular high schools, and the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP)…

This three-year project at Shaw University (North Carolina), an historically black institution, was a dual enrollment project designed, first, to attract academically talented minority students to teacher education and, second, to motivate minority students to attend college. Over a three-year period, the college incentive program brought a total…

Investigates strength of national identity and degrees of democratic orientation among honors high school seniors taking advanced political science courses in 1986 in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. Finds West German students less tolerant of minority free speech, more fearful of consequences of dissent, and less politically…