Using a dataset that includes over 17 million students from across all 50 states, we estimate the causal impact of making structural transitions into middle school (in grades 4, 5, 6, or 7) on student math and reading achievement trajectories. This dataset provides an ideal opportunity to engage in the valuable scientific practice of conducting…

Students with intellectual disabilities (ID) are increasingly seeking postsecondary education (PSE) opportunities. High school to college transition presents its challenges for all students, and school counselors are uniquely positioned to assist students with ID throughout the PSE process. This article provides a review of the literature on PSE…

Many learning, behavioural and developmental problems can limit students' abilities to respond adequately to the school's curriculum. School personnel often join with colleagues, including school psychologists, to assist students in resolving these problems. This presentation describes a model program in which school psychologists and others…

In his introduction to this special issue, Roger Millsap has given an excellent summary of its contents. This eases our task considerably. In what follows, we first present some general observations about growth curve modeling of longitudinal data. Among other things, we will address the criticism that the popular latent growth curve model may…

High school students in South Australia were administered in group fashion the pendulum and the chemical color change developmental tasks. The major conclusion of this study is the fact that it is possible to translate into group form, administer, and assess rapidly and with considerable reliability Piagetian problem indicators of developmental…

A sample of 108 eight-grade students using Intermediate Science Curriculum Study (ISCS) were tested with four Piagetian tasks: two tasks were related to ISCS concepts, two were not. Concludes that no students were formal operational, most were concrete operational, and most performed better on the non-ISCS related tasks. (MLH)

Students were classified as formal or concrete-operational using a battery of Piagetian tasks, a biology content examination, and a nonscience content examination. Based on the results it was concluded that Piagetian tasks are relatively content-free and can serve as realistic indicators of concrete and formal thinking abilities. (MLH)

Some of the procedures for developing and validating learning sequences or learning hierarchies are explored. For each of these procedures, references are provided that can be used for additional study or clarification of the procedures. (Author)

Studied was the performance of four Piagetian tests for formal reasoning by students between the ages of 9 and 15. Concluded that boys performed better than girls. (MLH)

Secondary science students were tested, using Piagetian tasks to determine their level of intellectual development, and then tested on scientific concepts classified as concrete or formal. Results showed significant multiple correlations between the scores on the tasks and the subject matter tests. (MLH)

There is considerable disagreement concerning the age of onset and universality of attainment of Piaget's stage of formal operations. This study examines developmental differences in response to brief prompts in the use of a formal operational approach to the solution of two tasks. The subjects were 10 males and 10 females from each of Grades 5,…

Found that the following variables significantly affected the students' performance of a task involving science skills: type of rule and number of attributes used in the prediction task, and whether the student was given a verbal description of the rule to be used. (MLH)

Compares the cognitive levels of groups of high school biology students, freshman physics students, and senior science students by testing them with two Piagetian tasks. Examines correlations between cognitive levels and other measures such as SAT scores. (MLH)

A sample of 228 elementary school children in a large eastern city was administered tasks which tested visual perceptions of solid objects, and photographs and drawings of these objects. Results showed that children in grades one, four, and six demonstrate a tendency to perform more efficiently on observation and comparison tasks employing solid…

This investigation explored the relationship between scholastic grades in science in junior and senior high school students and ability of students to perform formal operational tasks. The findings indicated that at certain grade levels and in certain subject areas, public school science students who demonstrate formal operational logic tend to…