Student mobility (students moving from one school to another for reasons other than being promoted to the next school level) is widespread in the United States. This Spanish-language Digest examines the research on the academic consequences of mobility for elementary school students and discusses what schools and parents can do to mitigate the…

On the weekend of February 3-6, the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois hosted the 2005 National Conference of Black Physics Students, marking the 19th consecutive year that the Conference has provided African American physics students with the unique opportunity to meet and network with counterparts from all across…

Ensuring that language tests for adult English language learners are appropriate, valid, and reliable is a challenge. Performance-based assessments are complex to develop and implement. Yet, because the focus of assessment, both in the National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS) descriptors and in the Department of Education's definition…

In addition to being one of the largest states in the country, California is also known for innovation and change. Reform in California often presages change throughout the country. The views of California teachers are, therefore, of special Significance to policymakers. This survey examines the 1985 views of California teachers for strengthening…

This report, the second in a series published by the National Council on Teacher Quality, examines states' progress in meeting the new federal requirement that by the end of the 2005-2006 school year there will be a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom in the nation. This new requirement has led to some discomfort in more than a…

Schools that become part of the "Making Middle Grades Work" network are expected to use the middle grades comprehensive improvement framework to show progress in changing school and classroom practices in ways that advance student achievement. True school reform is not a quick process. It is a continuous effort to make purposeful and planned…

This report reviews 75 high schools in the "High Schools that Work" (HSTW) network that made statistically significant gains in at least two of three areas reading, mathematics and science--between 2002 and 2004 on the "HSTW" Assessments. In these schools, all groups of students improved achievement--regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic…

Children's exposure to family violence may lead to increased school difficulties, as shown in studies demonstrating the relationship between children's adjustment disorders and stressful family events. To examine the unique effects of violence on children's cognition, this study compared the academic performance and conflict levels of two groups…

A study evaluated the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing Program. The comprehensive evaluation examined the background literature, the psychometric characteristics, and the impact of the writing assessment both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicated that: (1) the majority of fifth- and seventh-grade students in Alabama do not…

This study examined the effects of course level, class size, and instructor gender on student ratings of teacher performance at the National Hualien Teachers College in Taiwan. A total of 9,843 usable evaluation forms were completed for 440 courses (96 freshmen-level, 142 sophomore-level, 119 junior-level, and 83 senior-level) taught by 132…

Assessing literacy strategies through collected works, reading logs, journal writings, other language activities, and informal testing, this book provides preservice teachers a firm grounding in the theory of literacy portfolios as part of authentic assessment strategies and provides guidelines of creating and using literacy portfolios…

This book aims to introduce teachers and other educational practitioners to the concepts, operating principles, and teaching strategies of the adventure in the classroom (AITC) model. Adventure involves more than equipment, risk taking, or the outdoors. Adventure is a matter of significance, support, stimulation, and satisfaction--characteristics…

A study examined the relationship among instructor socio-communicative style, argumentativeness, and verbal aggressiveness in the college classroom. Participants were 139 undergraduate students enrolled at a small southern university who completed the Assertiveness-Responsiveness Measure (Richmond and McCroskey, 1995), as well as modified versions…

The relationship between basic skills support, dropout rates, retention, and achievement in further education colleges was examined in a study of the 15,579 full-time students who were assessed at the time of their entry into 15 English and 3 Welsh general further education and tertiary colleges. On average, just under one-third of the students…

Until recently, fathers were the hidden parents in research on children's well-being. Research stimulated by the new interest in fathers suggests that fathers' involvement in their children's schools does make a difference in their children's education. Using data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey (NHES:96), this Digest looks at…