This monograph provides educational researchers, policymakers, and practitioners with an overview of existing knowledge regarding factors that influence success among racial and ethnic minority students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) circuit. To accomplish this task, the authors reviewed more than four hundred…

The Science Assessment Research Project assessed the science achievement and attitudes of 18,000 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students nationwide. This study investigated the attitudes of a random sample of 1,955 17-year-old students' attitudes toward women in science as indicated by responses to seven Likert items administered during the assessment.…

From the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) in Britain, illustrative comments of 11- and 15-year-olds concerning mathematics are presented. Sex differences in attitudes and in test performance are also given. (MNS)

When studying different types of returns to education, educational reforms are commonly used in the economics literature as a source of exogenous variation in education. The Swedish compulsory school reform is one example; the reform extended compulsory education throughout the country, in different municipalities at different points in time. Such…

During the 1978-79 school year, 27,058 students were involved in the Minnesota Educational Assessment in Mathematics at three grade levels. Eighth graders were tested in the fall, fourth graders in the winter, and eleventh graders in the spring. The first chapter of this report presents a general overview of the assessment program. Chapter two…

Four reports are presented including "Alternative Approaches to Assessment of Practical Work in Science"; "Introducing Multicultural Science Teaching to a Secondary School"; "A Case Study on the Relative Performance of Boys and Girls in Chemistry Part II"; and "An INSET Technique--Developing a New Consensus." (CW)

This report describes a study which tested the applicability to rural schools of "effective school" research, which focuses on characteristics associated with schools found effective through analysis of standardized student achievement test scores. Strategies for providing input from local personnel included research awareness sessions,…

Included in this section are articles on the following topics: science education for pupils with learning difficulties, the Engineering Council, differential achievement in early childhood according to sex, a peer tutoring program, and suggestions for involving students in recording their own achievement. (CW)

Uses handwriting samples of 12 undergraduates to explore whether teachers give higher marks to students' work in good handwriting and whether the students' gender may be surmised by their handwriting. Results show grading is not influenced by handwriting quality and finds no effect of gender attribution on grades assigned. (NL)

This study examined differences between stable (n=107) and mobile (n=39) students attending a three-year middle school in Terre Haute (Indiana). Demographic variables of gender, ethnicity, and family income were considered, in addition to mobility, to assess possible relationships with aptitude and achievement. Achievement was measured by the…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) completed its fourth mathematics assessment during the 1985-86 school year and finished the analyses of the results in 1988. This monograph, prepared by an interpretive team of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, represents a comprehensive discussion of the results of the fourth…

A study of the correlates of cognitive achievement in Pennsylvania's Educational Quality Assessment Program was conducted by examining both individual (student level) and ecological (building level) correlations. Analyses were completed for grade levels 5, 8 and 11 for the 1985 state assessment. Twenty-four student derived condition variables or…

Surveys 383 rural/urban/suburban school psychologists to evaluate influence of child's background, school setting, and psychologist's work setting on educational expectations for hypothetical case study child. Finds expectations not influenced by student's background or school setting. However, rural psychologists have higher academic/vocational…

Analyzes academic success among 992 secondary school students in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Finds students in traditional schools scored higher in traditional curriculum areas and girls scored higher than boys. Results confirm school expansion did not increase educational quality except in the new curriculum area of social studies. (NL)

Conducted by the Council for Educational Development and Research, a national survey asked educators representing the nation's 8,889 small, rural school districts to indicate which of 40 items/issues facing rural, small schools needed improvement. The 4,364 respondents (827 school board presidents, 1,251 district superintendents, 1,283 principals,…