This paper examines the relationship between goal orientation and grades in two groups of college students: 369 students aged 18 to 23 and 71 students 24 years of age and older. Older students tended to earn higher grades than their younger counterparts. Non-traditional aged students also endorsed learning goals more than traditional-aged…

Prior research has identified ways in which parents and teachers contribute to learned helpless responses to failure, but little is known about the role that interactions with peers might play. In this study, the conversations of fourth- through sixth- grade children and their friends were observed after children experienced an achievement-related…

In this article, the author reviews research from the organizational sciences to develop turnaround policy guidelines that may prove useful for policy makers and educators. The approach is an integrative review of the literature. The author employs a comprehensive process to unpack and make sense of the turnaround literature from the…

This study examined the effectiveness of an assessment and intervention study targeting prekindergarten children at risk for reading failure. Across 38 child care sites, 220 children were identified as "at risk" for reading failure due to their performance on a screening measure of early literacy skills and randomly assigned to receive…

Few of today's teachers can remember an economic situation quite like the one individuals now face. To find analogies for the collapse of the housing bubble and the subsequent credit crisis, they have to search not their memories but their textbooks. "The Great Gatsby" and "The Grapes of Wrath" suddenly make more sense now. What will happen next?…

In a one try at success condition, prisoners high in an Achievement-low in test anxiety (HL) performed significantly better than those low in n Achievement-high in test anxiety (LH) in a noncontingent but not a contingent path. These results are consistent with previous findings involving prisoners and at variance with results derived from…

Suggests an alternative universe in which failure is identified as a systems concern, instead of a human breakdown. The model presents successful behavior in terms of growth in process efficiency, rather than the +/- (right/wrong) matrix associated with achievement orientation. (Editor)

Most pupil failure can be attributed to the fact that pupils are conditioned to be answer grabbers" and teacher pleasers". (AN)

Students were given the opportunity to learn self motivation or fail in a secondary English class. Twelve out of 225 failed academically, but felt they had gained more self-knowledge. (AF)

It's up to school leaders to shift the momentum away from conversations based on misperceptions and toward those that study critical issues about school improvement. "Crucial Conversations About America's Schools" talks about how to do this and provides examples of how to reframe conversations on the hot-button but important topics of…

This study addressed the problem of poor attendance adversely affecting grades and learning. Current school policies do not address problematic attendance for all school-aged children, perpetuating trends of academic failure. The research objective was to determine if unexcused absences had a greater negative impact on a high-stakes test compared…

Truancy remains a persistent concern, with serious consequences for the individual, family, and society, as truancy is often linked to academic failure, disengagement with school, school dropout, and delinquency. This study analyzed large-scale data covering multiple years of cohorts of delinquent youths born between 1981 and 1988. Truancy…

The study of student error, important across many fields of educational research, has begun to attract interest in the field of e-learning, particularly in relation to usability. However, it remains unclear when errors should be avoided (as usability failures) or embraced (as learning opportunities). Many domains have benefited from taxonomies of…

In this study, the authors explore a Canadian field experience model in a bachelor of education program that focuses on mentor-based relationships between teacher candidates and students at risk of dropping out of high school. They examine teacher candidates' and at-risk students' attitudinal approaches. The model emphasizes praxis and social…

This study contributes a novel perspective on grade retention by empirically examining how classroom composition relates to the standardized-testing performance of grade-retained students in their post-retained years. This evaluation employed a sample of entire cohorts of urban elementary school children in the Philadelphia School District over 6…