A new elementary retention policy was implemented in the Austin Independent School District (AISD) in 1981-82. The AISD Board of Trustees requested a three-year study of the impact and effectiveness of the policy. This report describes results from the second year of the study, including the effect of the change in policy on staff development,…

A discussion of how well freshmen students are performing at Arizona's three universities, the relationship of high school class standing to performance, and the resulting need to change admission standards is presented as one of the working papers in the final report of the Arizona Board of Regents' Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and…

Reflective thinking is important to young adolescents as they develop their thinking skills. Various instructional methods have been recommended to support reflective thinking, yet the nature of the underlying factors in these methods is unclear. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the factors prompting reflective thinking. Results…

This paper reports on the learning outcomes described by experienced teachers attending a program designed to enable them to come together to engage in professional development through structured and systematic reflective practice. In the first part of the paper, we look briefly at some of the challenges of defining "reflective…

Data from Project Talent and the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 provided comparable data on changes between 1960 to 1972 in reading ability and other characteristics of high school seniors, college entrants, and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) takers. Each group showed a decline in reading ability, but the drop for SAT…

It is often proposed that high schools are partly to blame for the decline in achievement test scores. Critics of current practices in education cite the decline in Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score averages that has occurred each year since 1963 as evidence. The College Entrance Examination Board Advisory Panel on SAT Score Decline has…

Polls dealing with American public education conducted since 1936 are examined, and over 60 items were chosen to illustrate: (1) changes in public opinion since 1960 that might have altered students' evaluations of college attendance or academic excellence, and (2) changes prior to 1960 that might have affected the quality of preparation for…

The College Entrance Examination Board Advisory Panel on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Score Decline considered various changes in American society as a possible cause of the downward trend in SAT scores that has occurred each year since 1963. For a span of 42 years (1933-75), a fold-out chart displays major events and influences on events,…

The Experience-Based Career Education (EBCE) program was designed to provide on-site vocational experiences for high-school youth in order to promote: (1) career development skills and knowledge; (2) self-knowledge--interests, abilities, and values; (3) reading skills; (4) problem solving skills; (5) oral communication; (6) writing skills; (7)…

A 21-item questionnaire was designed to determine the effects of teachers' sex, age and physical attractiveness on primary students' expectations of teacher performance. The questionnaire, administered to 144 third grade students, included photographs of male and female teachers who varied in age and physical attractiveness. The students were…

Five experiments were conducted to determine whether properties inherent in some training procedures may subtly influence the adaptability of skilled performance of complex tasks. The first two experiments assessed the insensitivity of low-rate performances. Examined in the third experiment was the issue of whether instructions that focus…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: the effects of a funded program on the attainment of reading and mathematics performance objectives by kindergarten children; a comparison of the reading success of Title I fourth grade…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the relationships between reading achievement and such factors as dependency, attitude toward reading, mastery of word attack skills, reaction time on selected…

THIRTY-SIX ARTICLES BY DIFFERENT AUTHORS PRESENT WAYS IN WHICH THE RESULTS OF CREATIVITY RESEARCH MAY BE UTILIZED IN THE SCHOOL, THE CLASSROOM, AND THE COUNSELING OFFICE. AFTER AN INTRODUCTION, FIVE ARTICLES TREAT GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS--THE CAUSES AND CONDITIONS OF CREATIVITY, AND THE EDUCATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF CREATIVE AND GIFTED CHILDREN.…

The seventh report of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program provides data comparing scores on the program variables of groups of State school districts classified on the basis of enrollment size. The 628 districts were divided into 14 groups, which were compared on: (1) human resources--such as pupil/teacher ratio and percent of teachers…