The influence of parents and other important adults on adolescent substance use is becoming recognized as a salient topic of research. A study designed to assess the impact of adult substance use on adolescents' progression through increasingly more advanced stages of substance use is reported here. Latent Transition Analysis was used to estimate…

The LegiSchool Project, a collaboration between the California State University, Sacramento, and the California State Legislature, scheduled a town-hall meeting to discuss areas in which adults feel they must control the behavior of young people. Materials for educating meeting participants are contained in this report. Participants, which…

The naturalistic inquiry is premised on a story narrative to describe classroom experiences. In an ongoing dissertation research study into the teaching and learning of secondary science, classroom stories were constructed to portray a student's point of view. The student's classroom goals, roles, and expectations for the teacher are discussed.…

This action research project implemented strategies for effectively promoting attitude and values to elicit good character in children. The targeted population consisted of first and third grade students in three schools in a middle class community in northern Illinois. The lack of respect and poor moral values contributed to the data that are…

This fastback outlines an approach to foster social responsibility in the classroom while simultaneously handling disruptive behavior simply and easily. The strategy that is considered will aid in establishing and maintaining a non-coercive, trusting environment, the first requirement of a quality classroom. Following the introduction, the…

An evaluation was conducted of the service-learning-based Community Connection program at Baker Middle School in south Texas to determine whether the program is having an impact on student achievement, attendance, perception toward self, school, and community. Data were collected through a survey of a sample of 120 students from the target…

College students (N=151) completed surveys assessing the relationship between e-mail use and extraversion. The variables studied included time spent on e-mail; the frequency of e-mail usage; and the purposes e-mail served for each student. The results suggest that extraverts use e-mail as a form of procrastination more than introverts, and that…

This action research project examined the impact of a character education program to enhance the learning environment in schools. The targeted population consisted of students in grades 1, 2, 3, and 6 and in a self-contained second, third, and fourth grade special education class. Students exhibited behaviors that reflected a lack of positive…

To build safe and effective schools, it is important, according to this report, to understand and take seriously the dynamics of bullying behavior among school-aged children. The report examines the problem of bullying and its effects on students, discusses steps schools can take to prevent bullying, and provides suggestions for implementing a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether students expected course difficulty to be reflected in grade distributions and in the amount of out-of-class effort required for success. Students from both upper and lower division classes described the amount of time they expected to spend preparing for an easy class, a difficult class, and a…

This paper discusses the importance of a school's having procedures in place to deal with possible biological terrorist threats. It begins with a discussion of biological terrorism. It then provides the symptoms of anthrax, treatment options for anthrax, and precautions to take when suspicious of an attack with a hazardous material. The paper goes…

This report, authorized by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, contains information on the School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children (SMI), a reform of school-meals programs aimed at upgrading the nutritional content of school meals. The purpose of the study was to describe and evaluate: (1) overall…

This report, authorized by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, contains information on the School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children (SMI), a reform of school-meals programs aimed at upgrading the nutritional content of school meals. The purpose of the study was to describe and evaluate: (1) overall…

This report, authorized by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, contains information on the School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children (SMI), a reform of school-meals programs aimed at upgrading the nutritional content of school meals. The purpose of the study was to describe and evaluate: (1) overall…

The purpose of this document is to provide more detailed guidance around early literacy instruction than afforded by currently available national and state standards documents. In particular, this document: (1) establishes consistent definitions for the terms "standard" and "benchmark"; (2) establishes a consistent format for early literacy…