This report describes a Prescription Learning Company basic mathematics multi-media laboratory at an elementary school in Austin, Texas. Research assumptions that the Prescription Learning approach makes are explored and reviewed. A sample of 12 fifth grade students participated in attitude and achievement results of the laboratory. Twenty-four…

The work experience of high school students is investigated, including type of work, amount of time worked, reasons for jobs away from home, effect of work on school performance and activities, and reasons for not being employed. The sample consisted of 1,227 urban and rural secondary school students in 14 Georgia high schools, 35.9 percent of…

The impact of the college core curriculum at Banning High School, Wilmington, California, was assessed by comparing the secondary and postsecondary experience of its June 1980 graduates with that of alumni who graduated in 1976 before the program began. The college core curriculum at Banning, which serves a predominantly low-income, ethnic…

Characteristics, experiences, and aspirations of black graduate and professional students at six large and predominantly white state universities were surveyed in 1981. Attention was directed to grade point averages (GPAs), involvement in professional activities, program of study, educational and occupational histories, career choice, relations…

Comparisons between whites and blacks in models of educational achievement were found to be suspect when based solely on least-square estimates, since the estimates are biased by measurement error varying by race. In this study, white high school seniors were shown to report their parents' status characteristics more reliably than black high…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of study guides on content retention and reading achievement among community college freshmen; (2) the effects of schemata and text structure on…

The relationship between student library use and selected student characteristics, including fields of study, academic achievement, and progress toward a degree was investigated at a large, urban, nonresidential university with a full-time-equivalent student population of 15,000. Findings include the following: students with higher grade point…

The U.S. Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC), offered through host colleges and universities, requires enrolled midshipmen to complete all institutional requirements for the baccalaureate degree in a technical or scientific field or an academic major of interest to the Navy, and to complete specific naval science courses. This study…

The college plans of 184 Maryland high school seniors who qualified as National Merit or National Achievement semifinalists were surveyed. Findings include the following: 58 percent of the semifinalists selected a private college and 18 percent chose a public college outside Maryland; 16 percent planned to attend Maryland public institutions, and…

Three basic causes for the general decline in mathematics achievement among high school graduates nationally are poor motivation to learn math, poor math curriculum, and poor or no mathematics instruction. Many Native Americans drop mathematics because of lack of challenging courses or interesting teachers in their high schools. Since American…

The 1982 British Columbia Science Assessment was designed to gather information from the professional literature, review panels, interpretation panels, teachers, and students enrolled in grades 4, 8, and 12 (and a sample from grade 10). This pamphlet provides brief answers to nine questions related to the assessment. These questions focus on: (1)…

Second-year results of the Block Plan, initiated in the seventh grade of a large junior high school in Alberta, Canada in 1980, indicate that the program is successful. The Block Plan uses the concept of a pair of teachers being assigned to two classes for the homeroom period plus four academic core courses--language arts/social science and…

Item response model applications to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data specifically aimed at the uses of item response models in mathematics item banking are discussed. Approaches for addressing goodness of fit were organized into three categories: Checks on model assumptions, expected features, and additional model…

A study examined the Harbor City Learning (HCL) Program in Baltimore, Maryland to determine how educational programs sponsored by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) could better prepare inner city youth to perform successfully in a number of jobs or occupations. Specifically, the study investigated the characteristics of the…

Current literature about children of one-parent families can provide educators with information on what effects living in a one-parent family have on a child's personality, behavior, and academic performance. Research indicates that at the elementary level children often fear abandonment, act aggressively, and display attention-seeking behaviors…