Teacher efficacy is a critical variable in teacher and school effectiveness. The Teacher Efficacy Scale was used to assess teacher efficacy and investigate its relationship to teacher use of time, student time on task, and student achievement. Classroom observations were gathered from 14 teachers, grades 4-6, at two schools. Teacher allocation of…

Possible reasons for the nationwide increase in the number of children identified as learning disabled (LD) include abrogation of general education's responsibility toward difficult to educate children, increasing differences in preservice general and special education training, the increase in parent/student rights litigation, and parental…

Unquantifiable changes affecting attitudes of teachers, administrators, and students who were involved with a four-year comprehensive staff development effort are discussed. A brief overview and analysis of the Napa-Vacaville Follow Through Research Project describes the program designed to improve student engaged rates and achievement at two…

This is one of a series of reports which provide definitions of and descriptive data on the variables used in the Comparative Study of Phase IV of the Individually Guided Education (IEG) Evaluation Project. Phase IV investigated three curriculum programs specifically designed to be compatible with instructional programming for the individual…

The focus of this paper is the degree to which school effectiveness characteristics are alterable from a measurement perspective. The basis for measurement was the Connecticut School Effectiveness Questionnaire. The sample included seven schools which took the questionnaire for the first time between January and June of 1982 and for the second…

Research-based answers are offered to the following questions on instructional time: (1) Can student achievement be improved by making time to teach? (2) What can a classroom teacher do to make time to teach? and (3) How can a school or district help the teacher? Factors related to instructional time which are described as having an effect on…

As part of the evaluation of the High School Improvement Project (HSIP), a survey was conducted to measure staff perceptions of school and instructional effectiveness behaviors and activities at Northwestern High School in Detroit, Michigan. The questionnaire used was an abbreviated version of the School Effectiveness Questionnaire developed by…

The study investigated alternative explanations for differences in reading achievement between pairs of handicapped students exhibiting comparable amounts of academic engaged time. Forty-six students in grades 2-4 from urban and suburban districts participated; 16 were classified as learning disabled (LD), 14 as emotionally/behaviorally disturbed…

An exploratory, comparative study of the achievement of 186 homogeneously and heterogeneously grouped second graders found no significant differences in overall achievement in reading and mathematics. However, a significant difference in reading comprehension scores of children in the two groups was found. At low, medium, and high academic…

This study investigated the relationship between engagement and achievement for college students in an intermediate swimming class. It also examined this relationship for students who entered the class with different initial skill levels, different previous experience with the subject matter, and for students of different gender. The methodology…

Considerable research has been conducted on the effect of anxiety on academic achievement. The most consistent finding is that high anxiety is associated with low performance, particularly at the elementary school level. To explain this situation, some researchers have hypothesized that anxiety debilitates students' attention span or time-on-task…

The use of time in school, specifically the portion of time defined as active responding time, has been shown to correlate significantly with achievement. The comprehensive observational methodology of the academic engaged time studies provides the basis for systematically investigating student responding time and elements of the educational…

Effective curriculum is based on a mastery learning model. According to Carroll's mastery learning model, learning rate is partially a function of student "perseverance" or time on task, which is in turn determined by a learner's entering repertoire and the quality of instruction. Although the mastery-learning model looks simple, its execution is…

Elementary students who have fallen behind their instructional group in reading can increase their rate of acquisition of reading skills through increased "time on task" (the time a learner actually spends attending to the learning task). In a six-month research project, subject students were pretested for reading ability, then grouped under three…

Discusses studies done on primary grade basic skills instruction and student achievement gain since 1973 focusing on content covered, student attention, direct instruction and proportion of student time spent in seatwork rather than on teacher behaviors. Discussed are, teacher centered instruction, student choice of activity, grouping students for…