Home schooling is a growing practice in many Western countries. Examination of the practice has entailed collection of "hard" data, such as academic achievements and success rates in higher education, as well as investigation of the practice from the perspective of parents. It is very important to examine homeschooling from the…

This commentary focuses on the promises and challenges facing the Social and Character Development (SACD) consortium in evaluating the effectiveness of seven universal SACD programs designed to enhance student behavior and school climate under conditions of real world practice. In this commentary, we highlight that the opportunity costs associated…

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the Division of Violence Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborated to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of programs aimed at improving students' behavior. For this evaluation, such programs were termed Social…

Discusses the goal of Montessori education to develop environments for children that support their evolution as human beings. Proposes social, moral, cognitive, and emotional developmental outcomes for preschoolers, elementary children, and adolescents. (JPB)

The authors examined the prediction of occupational attainment by age 40 from contextual and personal variables assessed during childhood and adolescence in 2 participant samples: (a) the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, a study of 856 third graders in a semirural county in New York State that began in 1960, and (b) the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal…

Supporting earlier research evidence showing that participation in school activities is related to later positive cognitive, social, and personality development, the findings of this study suggest that the advantages for the well rounded development of the individual student in small schools--those graduating 150 or fewer students per year--may…

Describes Turkey's preschool system and discusses the outcomes of (1) an investigation of the effects of social class and preschool center type on child and staff behaviors; and (2) a project to develop an intervention model for disadvantaged environments, while comparing the impact of educational preschools, custodial preschools, and home care on…

In response to the growing public interest in seeing that higher education institutions address the personal development needs of students, this study evaluated the personal and social growth of college students and introduced an index of personal and social growth of college students. The study used the new American College Testing Program's…

Summarizes findings of a national study of 27 programs and concludes that educational programs which are experientially based can have a significant positive impact on the social, psychological, and intellectual development of adolescents. (Author/GC)