School effectiveness indices (SEIs), based on regressing test performance onto earlier test performance and a socioeconomic status measure, were obtained for eight subject-grade combinations from 485 South Carolina elementary schools. The analysis involved school means based on longitudinally matched student data. Reading and mathematics…

An experimental, interdisciplinary, mastery learning course in intercultural communication--designed to help students at Santa Barbara (California) City College overcome barriers arising from language, attitudinal, nonverbal, and ethnocentric variations in communication styles--is described in this collection of documents. The collection includes…

Study habits and attitudes of American Indian students were related to classroom achievement and classroom behaviors, and strategies for improving study skills and attitudes were discussed. The Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes Form H (SSHA) was administered to 160 American Indian students in grades 7 through 12 at a reserve school in Manitoba,…

Faults of special education include its medical view of disability, its arbitrary division of students into handicapped and nonhandicapped, and the resultant separation between general and special education. Disabled adults are becoming less tolerant of an educational system that fails to recognize the capabilities of handicapped students.…

The document contains summaries of papers and ensuing discussions presented at a 1985 symposium on exceptional American Indian children and youth. The opening address (by Beverly Valley, a parent and school board member) stresses the role of parents and the need for less culturally biased testing. Two papers deal with parent and family…

"Here's Looking at You" (HLAY) is a creative prevention curriculum designed to cultivate a commitment among young people to deal in responsible ways with alcohol in their environment. The model, developed as a demonstration project for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, consists of self-contained teaching units for…

This ERIC Digest presents a brief description of some applications and findings of the microcomputer in science classrooms. It is suggested that microcomputer simulations are at least as effective as hands-on experiences for some cognitive outcomes and may in fact enhance these outcomes when the simulations are sequenced to follow hands-on…

The articulation or suppression of ethnicity among high school students depends on the individual's estimation of the relevancy of ethnicity, an estimation linked to structural factors in society. Data for this ethnographic study were derived from extensive observations of students by a participant-observer at a multiethnic urban high school. The…

A detailed analysis of the significant gender differences observed in performance on the mathematics portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in 1986 was performed for students enrolled in the Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland). A disaggregation of data from the 1986 SAT administration was performed to examine homogeneous subgroups…

In spring 1986 Anglo students received higher scores than Blacks or Hispanics on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), on all subtests and at all grade levels in the Denver (Colorado) Public Schools. This study, by attempting to locate patterns of item response, seeks to identify items in the ITBS that suggest differential pupil achievement by…

Grade retention data were collected from the Campbell River, British Columbia schools to determine the prevalence of retention and its effect on school completion. An extensive survey was administered to 52 parents and 204 educators to assess attitudes towards grade retention. Individual interviews were conducted with eight teachers from various…

A study examined curriculum policies and practices within technical and further education (TAFE) in Australia. To isolate and explain differences in patterns of curriculum development (CD) within the TAFE sector, researchers administered a set of three-tiered questionnaire information-gathering sheets to curriculum developers and project managers…

Inner City children have been known to experience difficulty in school with their academic programs because they are taught in an environment that is culturally different from the home and community that a child comes from. Thus, an inner city child may be stigmatized as educationally deficient, consequently depriving him of the opportunities to…

Differences in instructional workload between men and women college faculty were studied at a large, land-grant university. The following variables were investigated: number of weighted student credit hours, number of sections taught, number of different courses taught, and didactic hours by level of course. Because the faculty members varied in…

A ten-year research effort, conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), explored the relative merits and failings of different national systems of education in the United States and in Western and Eastern Europe. The first section of this report deals with trends in American education as seen…