Examines factors that contribute to the academic excellence of Jewish and Asian students. Finds that traditional socioeconomic measures explain some of the advantage of Jewish and Asian students over other ethnic groups but that parent and student attitudes toward education is also an important factor. (ACM)

Reports the effects of an after school tutoring and academic skills training partnership education program on low-achieving, black students' math and reading achievements. Student and parent behavior and academic achievement were assessed. School-reported defiance and parent-perceived adaptive skills significantly predicted grade point average.…

A University of New Mexico medical school program to evaluate students having difficulty with noncognitive professional traits (responsibility, reliability, maturity, self-assessment, communication, honesty, integrity, respect for patients and peers) has identified 10 students with difficulties and provided interventions and remediation over a…

Reports a case study that examined how one effective middle school teacher of primarily high-risk students created a classroom environment that enhanced learner outcomes. Analysis of data collected through participant observation and interviews indicated that the normative nature of this particular classroom was intimately entwined with academic…

Asserts that social studies is an integrated field of study that calls for organizing the curriculum in a holistic manner. Maintains that the whole-language movement, which involves thinking about reading and writing as integrated, reciprocal processes, forms a natural partnership with social studies instruction. (CFR)

Explores developmental patterns in children from kindergarten through grade six. Highlights physical development, including height, activity level, motor skills, and health; mental development, including abstract thought, academic focus, learning difficulties, subject preferences, and creativity; psychosocial development, including interpersonal…

Argues that female students remain disproportionately quiet in geography classes because of male bias forms of instruction. Maintains that girls' interest and responses increased when examples and issues involving women were introduced. Includes tabulation and classification of responses by gender, and comments from female students. (MJP)

Maintains that adaptive help seeking exemplifies how elementary- and middle-school students regulate their own learning and intellectual development. Discusses how parents, teachers, and peers contribute to the development of children's skills and attitudes associated with adaptive help seeking. Traces early help-seeking behaviors in the home and…

Examined the situations in which a random sample of African-American middle school students are violent, the students' interpretations of these situations, the goals of their violent behavior, and how they justify the use of threats or force against others. Created recommendations for violence prevention implied by these research findings. (TJQ)

This study assessed school climate for both interpersonal and intrapersonal character traits and examined the links between school climate and students' perceptions of safety at school. Sixty-four elementary and 159 secondary students completed questionnaires in the spring. Findings revealed that character traits were reliably assessed for both…

The need for an environment conducive to achievement for diverse learners is especially challenging at the middle and high school levels, where more students with learning challenges are included in the general education program, but teachers tend to be less tolerant of disruptive and distractible behaviors. Thus, students who do not conform to…

Sociocultural contexts influence social behaviors in ways that may not always be reflective of majority-culture norms. They also may vary the impact social skills training (SST) programs have on minority students with learning disabilities. To better understand culturally sensitive and effective SST for students with learning disabilities, it is…

In this article, the authors respond to Dr. Amada's comment on their paper. They feel that several of his points, though related to their topic, go beyond the scope of their paper, for example, reflecting on the potential for legal involvement when the intensity of the obsessive relationship warrants urgent intervention. In the latter case the…

The authors examined school discipline problems in relation to academic and interpersonal characteristics of students in a middle school of a rural low-income community. The sample comprised 259 students (83 boys, 176 girls)--all of whom were African American--and reflected the community's public school attendance. School records were examined,…

Standardized rating scales are the most often used part of the multidimensional assessment of children's behavior. However, low cross-informant correlations raise concerns about the reliability and validity of the resulting scores. This study examined whether the manner in which behavioral constructs are measured differs across informants, across…