Charles Chance's 1982 study of the middle grades in the Knoxville Tennessee, City School System suggested the need to develop a system-wide concept, system-wide goals, and a system-wide organizational framework for middle schools. These issues were addressed in a study designed to assess the status of middle-grade education in East Tennessee and…

A study compared language skill development and cultural attitudes of second-grade children taught in an additive-bilingual program setting with those of second-grade children from a monolingual classroom setting. Subjects were 41 second-grade children participating in a Spanish immersion program and 19 children from a regular second-grade…

The results of two nationwide administrations of the 1988 General Educational Development (GED) tests were compared. The first, a norming study, was based on 34,548 GED tests taken by graduating high school seniors. The second study was based on 55,154 GED test item sets administered to adult examinees who had taken the test for diploma…

Two student populations of 13-year-olds in Ontario (Canada) were assessed as part of the 1988 International Assessment of Educational Progress (IAEP): French- and English-language students. Results confirm findings of differences in mathematics achievement seen earlier in the Second International Mathematics Study. Ontario French-language students…

This guide describes the New York State assessment process as a framework for other districts aiming to develop an effective approach to performance assessment. In 1984-85 the New York State Board of Regents initiated the Comprehensive Assessment Report (CAR) as a process of reporting and using education results throughout the state. The…

As part of the High School and Beyond study, a large nationally representative sample of students was asked whether they lived with their mother, a stepmother, their father, or a stepfather in their sophomore year and again in their senior year of high school. Family configurations consisting of two-parent, one-parent, and stepparent families were…

This report examines how well Minnesota high school students are doing academically compared with their counterparts in other states. It also looks at curriculum requirements and the time students spend in high school. The report documents: (1) the number, type, and level of courses available to high school students; (2) schedules of instruction;…

A report is given of the development and implementation of a training manual for eighth-grade mathematics teachers in the Netherlands. The manual is research-based on process-product correlations of effective classroom practices. To test the effectiveness of a 6-hour training period using the manual, nine experienced mathematics teachers were…

A study analyzed and compared the classroom interactional strategies of two teachers of Catalan immersion classes and one teacher of Spanish as a native language in Spain at the kindergarten level. The theoretical framework guiding the study is based on analysis of the native-speaker/non-native-speaker distinction. Two comparisons were made: (1)…

A research project concerned with the development of English as a school subject in the Norwegian elementary and junior high school identifies and describes British and American influences on the theoretical climate of foreign language teaching in Western Europe from the 1950's to the 1970's. A distinct British influence, the so-called Palmer,…

This study investigated the development of teachers' conceptions of learning disabilities (LD) as a function of experience with pupils having LD. An expert group of 25 LD-certified special education teachers, a transition group of 24 regular classroom teachers of mainstreamed LD pupils, and a novice group of 20 undergraduate special education…

While there are severe limitations on the availability, comparability, and reliability of education statistics for the United States and other major foreign nations, a comparison of data reveals that the relative ranking of the United States among other nations with respect to educational participation in general is high, but that it is low in…

The study describes ten discussion activities designed to improve the communicative abilities of Japanese learners of English based on cultural instruction goals. The activities target intermediate and advanced students, but teachers can modify the lessons for false beginners. All exercises stress speaking and listening. They focus on topics…

Eight language curricula that are widely used in the Netherlands for children up to grade 8 were evaluated. Questions examined were: (1) whether the use of a particular curriculum results in greater achievement in specific language areas; (2) what differences and similarities exist among these curricula; (3) do differences exist in the ways in…

The San Diego Board of Education requested that pilot programs be conducted with commercially developed (Grades K-8) mathematics textbooks and programs in order to determine which of the programs/texts were superior, and whether a district-developed program could successfully compete with commercially produced materials. The pilot program…