An evaluation was made of PACE (Parent and Child Education), a family literacy program initiated in Kentucky in 1986. PACE was created because of the widespread belief that the state has a serious problem with undereducation of its adult population and the belief also that this problem is the result of persistent patterns of educational failure…

Research on academic achievement and high risk students over the past 30 years indicates that the home, the school, or the community can be the source of insufficient educational experiences that contribute to educational disadvantage. About 30 percent of the present school population is estimated to be at risk of failure, and demographic…

This document contains the final report on a study of factors associated with dropping out of high school. The analyses presented are based on data from the initial and first follow-up rounds of the High School and Beyond survey of the sophomore class of 1980. The introductory chapter discusses the background of the dropout problem and influences…

In 1990, a research study was conducted to discover which variables students identified as being significant to their academic success, first at Mt. San Antonio Community College (MSAC), then after they transferred to the California State University (CSU) or to the University of California (UC). An important goal of the study was to determine if…

A longitudinal study of girls from the sixth through tenth grades sought to determine if the extent and type of participation in physical activities changed with age. A sample of 207 girls was selected with 140 completing the survey over 5 years. Participation was measured by activities in interschool teams, intramural activities,…

Mexican Americans differ from Anglo Americans in their types of health problems, relation to the American health care system, and responses to health care. Mexican Americans tend to underutilize available health resources because of fear of discrimination, perception of health workers as government representatives, and language and cultural…

This book consists of the edited transcripts of 19 interviews conducted with two- and four-year college students ranging in age from 25 to 65, who returned to school to complete degrees, work toward new degrees, or merely take classes. Drawing from the interviews, introductory comments offer generalizations about adult students returning to…

The effects of parental separation and home environment factors on children's cognitive creative abilities, specifically in the area of divergent thinking, were studied. A total of 64 female and 52 male children from 58 single-parent families and 58 two-parent families enrolled in grades 3 through 5 participated in the study. Subjects were sampled…

Prepared as part of a British project investigating children's language at home and at school, the study described in this paper centered on an examination of the spoken and written narrative texts produced by children to determine (1) the relationship between spoken and written texts; (2) the differences, if any, in the production processes used…

Counseling support for adult students entering a distance teaching program at Deakin University, Australia, and evaluation of this service are described. Admission is granted to adult students without formal educational qualifications, and a counseling program provides information on the demands of university study and possible role conflicts that…

A number of adult basic education (ABE) students who had spent time in both traditional, group-paced ABE or high school equivalency programs and experimental individualized learning conditions were interviewed concerning their preferences with respect to these two instructional approaches. The following three conclusions emerged from the…

The hypothesis that the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score decline is a result of changing American family sizes and configurations is explored. This possible explanation of declining SAT scores had been offered by Robert B. Zajonc in an article discussing the relation between family configuration and cognitive development. Since a number of…

The effects of the financial aid reform introduced in Sweden in the mid-1960s were assessed, with emphasis placed on possible effects on young people from lower socioeconomic strata. The study group is a nationally representative sample of persons born in 1948, who were also studied in 1961 in relation to background, interests, aptitudes, and…

The extent to which students are well matched with the universities they attend was investigated. The outcome of the choice process was examined with cross-sectional data on students at two private (Northwestern and Chicago) and one public (Northeastern Illinois) Chicago metropolitan area universities. Between and within school variation in…

Questionnaires completed by 607 middle school and high school students provided data about the learning of selected advertising-related cognitions among adolescents and on the short-term effect of these cognitions and other communication variables on adolescent consumption behavior. Among the findings were the following: susceptibility to…