This groundbreaking study is the first ever to examine the achievement of high-performing students over time "at the individual level". It poses--and seeks to answer--this straightforward question: Do students who outscore their peers on standardized achievement tests remain at the top of the pack year after year? Put differently, how many "high…

Background: The international science competitions show that students from different countries perform differently in subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry. In the literature comparative empirical studies tried to address the reasons for cross-national students' differences in performance from different perspectives such as teaching…

In October 2010, the Council of the Great City Schools released a major report on the academic status of African American males, "A Call for Change: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of Black Males in Urban Schools." The report was the first phase of the Council's efforts to recommit the energies of the nation's urban…

Explores motivation as a requisite to the educational goal of maximum development of all children's intellectual potential. Considers (1) causal attributions of success and failure and (2) attribution for task choice and involvement, in relation to, respectively, (1) inequality and (2) equality of optimum motivation in schools. (Author/GC)

From the academic--or instructivist--perspective, the young child is seen as dependent on adults' instruction in the academic knowledge and skills necessary for a good start for later academic achievement. This perspective is in direct contrast to the active and interactive curriculum assumed by proponents of the constructivist approach. This…

Educational leaders can take specific steps to improve academic achievement during college, including increasing and improving student-faculty interaction; providing an integrated, mind-opening general education core curriculum; promoting student extracurricular activity; encouraging students to live on campus; and permitting individualized course…