Higher order cognitive development and success in the study of high school mathematics and science require an understanding of rational number concepts and facility with proportional reasoning and computation. Proportional reasoning is an essential schema for developing formal operational thought. This study involving 16 ninth-grade students was…

This unit focuses on the school integration case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Kansas), and its immediate aftermath. The Supreme Court's 1954 decision was a catalyst for civil rights activism along a broad front over the ensuing decades. The decision and its implementation have stood as a model for similar social and political action…

This paper evaluates STRIVE, an alternative program designed to provide a nurturing, caring, and intensive academic environment for over-age, low-performing ninth grade students attending the Barbara Jordan High School for Careers in Houston (Texas). STRIVE operates in isolation from the regular student population and has a counselor and four…

This semester-long curriculum is designed to increase the self-esteem, leadership skills, and communication, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities of eighth and ninth grade students who are at risk of dropping out of school. The manual offers procedural suggestions for organizing a Going Places class. Individual sections address…

Understanding and reporting students' affective experiences with mathematics is difficult if those experiences do not resonate with personal experiences. Utilising fiction-writing in narrative reporting can be a technique that helps both the researcher and the reader of the research report to immerse themselves in the student's experiential world.…

Use of item response theory (IRT), the delta plot method, and Mantel-Haenszel techniques to assess differential item functioning (DIF) across racial and gender groups associated with the Maryland Test of Citizenship Skills (MTCS) is described. The objective of this research was to determine the: effect of sample size on results from these three…

A practicum was designed (for grades 7-9) which implemented a speech, drama, and communications course (18 students) at a nonpublic Christian school. The goals of positive student self-image and peer acceptance were emphasized through teacher-made and religious-oriented materials as well as through written and oral student presentations evidencing…

This booklet describes a number of activities initiated in the State of New Jersey to improve academic standards and to help teachers prepare their students for taking New Jersey's High School Proficiency Test (HSPT). The HSPT, administered to all public school ninth graders, is more demanding than the previously used Minimum Basic Skills Test.…

This study reports grade, gender, and environmental (school structure) differences in self-reported use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana among urban black adolescents. Among the results are the following: (1) an equal percentage of males and females reported having "tried" cigarettes and alcohol; (2) males reportedly smoked more cigarettes…

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 Manitoba Department of Education's curriculum guide to German instruction in grades 7 through 9 presents the approved curriculum, makes recommendations for its implementation, and provides information about sets of teaching materials from which teachers can make appropriate selections. The guide outlines the rationale for the curriculur and…

The evaluation of Manitoba's French immersion programs for grades 6 and 9, undertaken as part of a policy formation process, compares students' achievement in English language skills and mathematics to the national norm and within immersion groups in those grades. Achievement in French and French language proficiency are also compared within…

The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of the Theory of Planned Behavior for predicting the behavioral intentions of teachers enrolled in the Institute in Physical Science. The study investigated three determinants of teachers' behavioral intentions set forth in the theory of planned behavior, namely attitude toward the behavior,…

Two alternatives to retention in grade for secondary school students were evaluated in Austin (Texas). Both were designed to allow students who are potential retainees (PRs) to receive remediation in one semester. The Transitional Academic Program (TAP) allows PRs to enroll in ninth-grade courses while repeating eighth-grade courses they had…

This guide, designed for use in a ninth grade BRIDGE class, is a comprehensive source of learning activities intended to help motivate youth to stay in school and acquire the skills required to succeed both in school and at work. BRIDGE, a program conceived by Public/Private Ventures in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), is for high-risk students in…