Among the many life transitions that individuals must master throughout their lives, the transition to adulthood ranks very high in terms of importance, complexity and uniqueness. It involves the completion of education, and the assumption of new social roles and responsibilities, at a time when previous institutional structures that guided…

Student retention has become a difficult issue within higher education. As such, it is imperative to examine the causes, as well as provide educators with strategies to implement to improve retention rates. "Critical Assessment and Strategies for Increased Student Retention" is a pivotal reference source for the latest progressive…

To support and promote secondary analyses, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) is making the SITES 2006 international database and accompanying User Guide available to researchers, analysts, and public users. The database comprises national contexts and school- and teacher-level data from 23 education…

A framework for generating curriculum research is proposed from a synthesis of Dunkin and Biddle's model of teaching variables with Beauchamp's "curriculum system" planning functions. The framework systematically defines variables that delineate curriculum planning processes. (CJH)

Sixty-nine Israeli school principals completed questionnaires designed to reveal the factors contributing to the leadership styles they used when initiating curricular changes. The principals fell into three leadership categories: "Initiators," who seek change in accordance with long range policies and goals; "Responders," who…

Critically analyzes recent research studies that examine background variables, cognitive style, and psychological type as influences on performance in college-level computer science courses. Implications for matching curriculum and instructional strategies with student characteristics are presented, recommendations for further research are made,…

This study of 121 10th-grade students investigated the criterion-related validity of 2 potential curriculum-based measurements, reading from text and identifying vocabulary meaning, for predicting student performance on content-area study tasks. Correlational and multiple regression techniques found the vocabulary measure to be the stronger…

Discusses increased numbers of undergraduate psychology majors and strategies to reduce them. Proposes a prediction model based on the grade point average of graduating psychology students. Concludes that student performance in introductory psychology courses may provide one predictive measure of later achievement. (CFR)

Considers curriculum evaluation studies in which perceived classroom environment characteristics were included among criteria of curricular effectiveness. Also reports several investigations in differences between students and teachers in their perceptions of actual and preferred classroom environments and draws together a diverse set of studies…

A study of 20 representative primary schools in New South Wales, Australia, revealed that a high degree of principal supportiveness as measured by the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire was associated positively with curriculum decision making by staff groups and negatively with curriculum decision-making by individual teachers. (PGD)

Reports results of two studies that examined teachers' and students' efficacy and sex-typing attitudes toward computers in schools from contrasting settings. Questionnaires were used in elementary and secondary schools in a district that had an educational computing curriculum in place and in schools that were just beginning computer…

Hierarchical linear modeling allowed the indentification of specific school characteristics and policies which help explain the relationship between social class and minority status with mathematics achievement, the relationship between social class and minority status with mathematics course enrollment, and school means for achievement and for…

This paper examines factors that contribute to or inhibit the academic achievement of black students. The study is based on a process model that seeks to define interrelationships among the following elements: (1) the societal context, which is the level of prescriptive ideologies and structures; (2) the institutional context, which is the level…