The introductory article to this special issue, entitled "Architectural Portfolio," forecasts, in the move toward the 21st century, grade organizational changes so that school districts can keep buildings operating; continued emphasis on energy conservation; and more educational funds going into school maintenance, modernization, and additions.…

This report is an accounting of a second case study of large-scale assessment practices in a local educational agency where students with disabilities were administered the state's standards-based tests out of level. The first report (Minnema et al., 2004a) provided the results from the first case study conducted in another school district in…

Grade-span configuration refers to the range of grades within a school. Grade span is an important issue to various factions in public education, including advocates of middle schools and rural educators concerned with the association between grade fragmentation and school consolidation. This digest focuses on research that has examined the…

This paper discusses grouping for instruction in teaching science. Suggestions include grouping students in science experiments and demonstrations, grouping by using videotapes and other audiovisual aids, flexible grouping, committee work, flexible discussion groups, minilessons, activity-centered teaching, modeling, individualized reading, and…

Reviews findings on auditory discrimination and reports an experimental finding that children discriminate more easily between meaningful words than between nonsense words. Bibliography. (MD)

Gathered information from 367 high school students on self-report survey about drinking. Results showed statistically positive correlations between parental acceptance and regular drinking, grade level in high school and consumption levels, grade level and frequency of drunkenness, grade level and source patterns, and regular consumption and lower…

Administered three self-concept instruments to 374 students in grades 7, 9, and 11. By using total scores as well as subscale scores, indications were obtained of global self-concept as well as perceptions of various dimensions of self. Data indicated significant sex, race, grade level, and social class differences. (RC)

Case study from the Providence, Rhode Island School District demonstrates how an outside planning group acted as the instrument for organizational change, while the superintendent provided the impetus for change. Reveals how internal and external factors influence decision making. (APM)

For a sample of 152 children in grades 2 to 6, interest centered upon concurrent validity of measures of empathy and social sensitivity as conceptualized within the behavioral segment of Guilford's structure-of-intellect model and a criterion measure represented by a standardized test of academic performance. (Author/CTM)

Describes study that was conducted to investigate the effects of sex and school level on the computer anxiety of rural middle school and secondary school students when home availability and school use of computers were controlled. Use of the Computer Anxiety Scale is described, and implications for computer implementation are suggested. (34…

Examines the relationship between grade configuration in rural schools and student attendance, suspension, and academic achievement for grades 6, 7, 10, and 11. In a large random sample of rural Louisiana schools, students in elementary schools (K-6/7) and unit schools (K-12) outperformed their middle and secondary school peers. Contains 25…

Self-concept ratings of children with mathematics disabilities (MD), average mathematics achievement (AA), and high mathematics achievement (HA) who attended regular classes in grades 4 through 6 were compared. Twenty-four children in each group, who were selected from an original pool of 811 children, and who were matched one-to-one by grade,…

The problem examined in this study deals with students' attitude toward physics among the freshmen and sophomore students who were taking first introductory physics course. In the study there were 176 students, and they were chosen sample of convenience from Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida. 125 subjects were male students, and…