In 1999 Stephen Gorard published an article in this journal in which he provided a trenchant critique of what he termed the "politician's error" in analysing differences in educational attainment. The main consequence of this error, he argued, has been the production of misleading findings in relation to trends in educational performance over time…

The aim of this article is to explore pupils' preferences for particular types of grouping practices, an area neglected in earlier research focusing on the personal and social outcomes of ability grouping. The sample comprised over 5000 Year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years) in 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools in England. The schools represented…

The aim of this study is to analyze the process of planning, preparation, application and evaluation of classroom rules at secondary schools, and to come up with some recommendations to develop functional classroom rules depending on the findings. The study is a survey of the graduates of secondary schools who are currently attending to some…

This study explores the effect of religious conservatism on the labor force behavior of women who marry or add a new child to their household, using the 1988-1993 National Survey of Families and Households (N = 3,494). We model changes in labor supply, occupation, and wages as a function of either conservative denominational membership or…

This study describes results from an investigation of Latino students attending a Hispanic Education Summit (HES) in North Carolina. Findings from data gleaned from 275 middle and high school students' perceptions are presented. Self-report data assessed level of acculturation, as well as students' perceptions with regard to a variety of issues,…

The author describes a pilot study to investigate the extent to which learners use imagery in a variety of spatial problems. In order to discover how to encourage pupils to use imagery and thus to become better problem solvers, this study set out firstly to explore how pupils are able to use imagery in a variety of tasks. The tasks involved mental…

The paper examines the influences on, and consequences of, low achievement defined as scores within the lowest achievement quartile. Low achievement is moderately associated with socioeconomic background and Indigenous status and the relationships with gender, ethnicity, region, family type, state and region differ for reading and mathematics. Low…

Early adolescents in the United States are increasingly exposed to a culture of worrisome messages. A degree of adolescent worry is normal, but the likelihood of a young person being anxious or depressed increases with the perceived number of worries. This study examined the effect of age, gender, and worry behavior on frequency of 8 adolescent…

Given the social nature of many tasks involved in exploring and committing to a career, we hypothesized that social anxiety would correlate to exploration and commitment, even after controlling for general anxiety. We also hypothesized that self-construal and gender would interact with social anxiety in relation to exploration and commitment. In a…

Context: Children on farms perform work that places them at risk for acute and chronic negative health outcomes. Despite strategies for preventing and reducing the risk of disease and injury, children's use of personal protective equipment and safety equipped farm machinery has generally remained unreported. Purpose: This paper reports the use of…

This study analyzes data from the NELS:92/00 to explore sex, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic group differences in the benefits that high school graduates realize from college. Sex differences in higher education benefits may be a source of observed differences between women and men in college enrollment and degree attainment rates. The findings…

In an examination of aspirations for leadership in the United States and Spain, male and female students envisioned themselves as a chief executive officer, vice president, or mid-level manager in an industry with a feminine image (clothing manufacturing) or a masculine image (auto manufacturing). Although men and women perceived these roles as…

This study investigated early parent-child relationships and how children's use of relational and physical aggression varies with aspects of those relationships during the preschool years. Specifically, parenting styles, parents' use of psychological control, and parents' report of their children's reunion behaviors were assessed. Analyses…

The research reported in this article intends to contribute to an understanding of how out-of-school literacies can influence the present and future learning of adolescents. Evidence suggests that students, boys particularly, are becoming literate in many ways through out-of-school activities (e.g., video games, Internet browsing, chatrooms), but…

The data presented in this article were obtained in a questionnaire survey of 2,893 students in the seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades of general education schools in Moscow. The survey was conducted by the Center of Sociology of Education of the Russian Academy of Education in 2002. Earlier publications by the same authors dealing with materials…