Sixth-grade students were exposed to two pairs of mathematics assignments. Assignment Pair A included a high-effort and a moderate-effort assignment, each containing 18 three-digit by two-digit (3x2) problems. Assignment Pair B was similar except the high-effort assignment contained six additional one-digit by one-digit (1x1) problems interspersed…

This action research project report examined all forms of bullying behaviors and ways to reduce those behaviors. The project included 63 students from both a high school health class and a 6th and 7th grade middle school homeroom. The research was conducted from September 17, 2007 through December 14, 2007. In the specified locations, female to…

It is well known that many pupils are bullied and suffer in a variety of ways as a result. This study looks at a largely overlooked outcome of bullying that may have direct consequences for academic success--disrupted concentration and attention to school work. Using pupil perceptions as the source of data, the two main aims were to quantify the…

This study tested the hypothesis whether older dyslexic children may obtain fewer gains on fluency and accuracy with respect to their younger peers after specific remediation. Changes in accuracy and fluency of a group of children with a diagnosis of dyslexia attending third and fourth grades were compared with those obtained by a group of…

A sixth grade class is asked: "When should you start thinking about and planning for college?" Most students answer with "tenth or eleventh grade," but invariably some brave soul raises a hand and tentatively responds with more of a question than an answer: "Now?" Yes, now. In 1992, Sallie Mae, the nation's largest…

(Purpose) The purpose of this study was to investigate the positionality of low income, African American school girls toward mathematics and science learning as they transition from elementary to middle school. The researchers sought to examine how culture, class and gender affected the girls' positioning in terms of mathematics and science, as…

This research study evaluated the achievement of students who were taught by traditionally certified teachers with students who were taught by alternatively certified teachers or those seeking certification through an alternative certification program. The primary purpose of the study was to examine significant differences, if any, in student…

To showcase the students and their classroom experiences, last February the author and her colleagues hosted an "Academics Avenues" Learning Fair at their school. They invited parents and community members, and everyone was handed a "Roadmap to Learning" so that they could see what educational adventures were taking place in each classroom. The…

Seventy-one normally functioning Spanish sixth-grade students participated in classroom-based training in cognitive strategies for preplanning and substantive revision of expository text. Short essays completed by these students pre-intervention, post-intervention, and after a 12 week delay were compared with those of an ordinary-curriculum…

The article links student and family characteristics, along with homework characteristics and homework purposes, to homework management as reported by 194 middle-school students in Grades 5-6. The results revealed that homework management was not related to grade level, amount of parental education, time spent on homework, or extrinsic reasons for…

This study addresses the questions that arise when collecting, describing, and analyzing information from multiple informants regarding attributes of individual students. Using data from the Fast Track study, we evaluate alternative measurement strategies for using multiple teacher ratings of student adjustment to middle school among a sample of…

This article describes a randomized evaluation of The Reading Edge, a reading program for middle school students. The Reading Edge was designed to integrate findings of research on cooperative learning and metacognitive reading strategies into a replicable reading instructional package that could be implemented effectively in Title I middle…

This study compared two configurations of sixth-grade students and core teachers to measure the students' perceived levels of social bonding with their peers, their school, and their teachers. One configuration featured a team of four teachers, each specializing in a core subject area and teaching this subject to all 100 students on the team. The…

As part of a research project examining relationships between instructional practices and student cognitive and social outcomes in middle-school mathematics classes, external observers and students reported perceptions of teachers' instructional practices. The extent to which students in classrooms identified by external raters as reform-oriented…

Three groups of children of different ages who were considered by their teachers as showing symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and matched controls were tested in a series of expressive writing tasks, derived from a standardized writing test. In the first study, 24 sixth- and seventh-grade children with ADHD symptoms wrote…