Teachers play an important role in monitoring the effects of stimulant medication used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Any negative attitudes they hold toward ADHD students or the students' parents, doctors, or medication, can compromise treatment efficacy. To assess teachers' perceptions of ADHD concerning social…

This study examined 60 children from the first, fourth and seventh grades to discover their beliefs concerning alcohol. A vignette procedure method was used to assess the development of children's knowledge of adult drinking motives and beliefs about the causes of adolescent drinking. Children's expectations about the interpersonal consequences of…

The culture of the composition profession has engaged in grossly overgeneralizing the problems students have, and students have bought into teachers' descriptions. Composition teachers need to take responsibility for the ways in which they have diminished students. In a detailed account of the construction of students, Marguerite Helmers…

This study examined 14 sixth grade teachers' opinions about classroom management, gathering information from an online discussion group conducted during the summer of 1997. Researchers selected and analyzed the teachers' opinions using content analysis according to the tenets of three classroom management theories: (1) the non-interventionist…

This handbook is designed to help school communities work together to strengthen California's public schools. It provides information to help leaders in school-improvement efforts be more effective and is designed for parent leaders, teacher leaders, school administrators, businesspeople, philanthropists, school board members, and others with a…

Findings from a study that examined the effectiveness of schools in closing the academic achievement gap between low and middle socio-economic status (SES) students in grades K-12 are presented in this paper. The main argument is that the schools identified as "effective" did not close the gap without simultaneously lowering the average academic…

This paper addresses the effects of developmental changes that occur in the transition from childhood to adolescence on parent-child relationships. The first section considers four theoretical approaches to changes in relationships during the transition to adolescence. Noted especially are perspectives regarding the impetus for changes in…

Studies have indicated that parental authority may or may not modify adolescent self-esteem (SE). This study drew on 343 college students to determine the relationship of adolescents' self-esteem to three familial variables: (1) parental permissiveness; (2) authoritarianism; and (3) authoritativeness, and three cognitive variables: (1) high…

Data from the National Survey of Children (Waves 1 and 3), a longitudinal survey of 2,000 children who were between the ages of 7 and 11 during the first wave in 1976 and between the ages of 16 and 20 during the third wave in 1987, were analyzed to examine the impact of paternal involvement during childhood as well as the ongoing father-child…

A freshman writing director's first year of teaching was worse than anything she had experienced as a graduate student, although she was trying to be exactly the same kind of teacher she had been as a graduate teaching assistant. Her realization was that she needed to know more about the abilities of her students and adjust her standards or…

This study defines efficacy for teachers as a teacher's sense of ability to function as an instructional leader in the classroom, and knowledge of, and contribution to, school instructional policy. A brief review of two previous studies indicates that school policies and the mission of the school tend to affect teachers' beliefs about their…

The underlying themes in a successful dropout-prevention program are that it is teacher-led and student-centered. In this, the third National Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE) report, project leaders offer guidelines for developing a successful prevention initiative. Suggestions are made on the following objectives: (1) empower…

Since the late 1960's, researchers have been concerned with the influence of teacher expectations on student performance. Teacher expectations generally can be categorized into three types: assessments of ability, predictions of progress, and natural discrepancies between teacher estimates and actual student performance. Expectations can have the…

Competence feedback has been found to increase intrinsic motivation, defined as those behaviors that are motivated by the underlying need for competence and self-determination. In a study investigating competency and intrinsic motivation, 120 high school males received three types of competence information: (1) expectancy (information that they…

An ethnographic study of five clerk-typists and five applications clerks in a large federal agency included observations, interviews, and a 3-week job literacy program. Both in their performance on job tasks and in the tests and exercises in the literacy program, the clerks demonstrated a number of strategies by which they quickly locate…