Minority students made up approximately 25% of the student population at Central High School in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1995. The composition of Central's honors and challenge classes did not reflect this diversity, however, few minority students were taking challenge classes as underclassmen and even fewer were taking AP courses as seniors. In fall…

In 1989, Oakton Community College (OCC) in Des Plaines, Illinois, began developing an honors core seminar in the sciences. The course was to be an interdisciplinary, laboratory-based science and humanities seminar, designed to explore the nature, process, and methods of science and the place of science in society. Rather than mastering a body of…

GENESYS is a GENeric Evaluation SYStem for data collection and evaluation through computer technology. GENESYS gathers and reports the standard information (student characteristics, achievement, attendance, discipline, grades/credits, dropouts, and retainees) for specific groups of students. In the Austin (Texas) Independent School District's…

The educational environment of the U.S. Air Force Academy is discussed and the Academy's basic world history program is described. The first part of the report focuses on the Academy's educational environment, discussing the core curriculum, history instruction, the cadet, and the history faculty. The report's second part, which comprises over…

An examination of classroom behavior, teaching methods, materials, equipment, and administrative practices in a junior high school reading and speech improvement class, in a senior high school communication skills course for low achievers, and in an English class for high achievers revealed that (1) shifting populations result in transiency,…

In 1983, the Texas Board of Regents charged Prairie View A and M to become nationally renowned. The lack of high caliber students because of confused messages about courses (university vs. vocational/technical school), sub-standard library, and neglected campus buildings is discussed, and the creation of an honors college within is described. (MLW)

Regression analysis was used to study retention and graduation for the fall 1996 entering class of students at a midwestern research extensive university (n = 3,610; 44% female, 8% minority, 77% in-state). Logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood of a student being retained for each of four years, and the outcome of graduation at the…

This study examined how learning a problem-solving strategy or schema in one or two distinct content areas with copying or explaining of the strategy affected students' ability to transfer that strategy to a new content area. Eighty-one regular and 56 honors junior high school students (grades 6 and 7) were presented with story problems and their…

The theme of this journal issue is "Institutional Renewal." Projects designed to address the issues of the 1980s at 18 colleges are described, and 15 definitions of institutional renewal are presented. Participating colleges were provided expert advice through the Association of American College's (AAC) Project Lodestar (renamed…

This journal is designed to provide a forum for faculty and staff in the Maricopa Community College District (MCCCD) to exchange information about effective teaching methods for practical application and intellectual stimulation. The journal publishes articles on teaching, learning, and classroom research including those describing programs,…

Innovative programs at Utah community and technical colleges are described and other topics of interest to faculty, staff, and administrators are addressed in this collection of articles. The journal contains the following articles by Utah two-year college faculty members: (1) "Open Access and Academic Excellence at Dixie College," by…

Information on over 500 major fields of study and the 3,000 colleges and graduate institutions that offer these programs at associate, bachelor's, master's, doctor's, and first-professional degree levels is provided for the 1986-1987 academic year. There are 17 special academic programs covered: accelerated program, combined bachelor's/graduate…

Issues in the education of gifted and talented students from minority language groups are discussed, including the definition of giftedness and how it affects minority language students, the reasons for underrepresentation of this group in gifted programs, commonly used techniques for identification of students in this group, and the suitability…

This collection of essays focuses on contemporary issues for two-year college education related to instruction, students, and faculty. The following essays are included: (1) "Entrance Testing at Community Colleges," by Patricia McElroy; (2) "Academic Advising in the Community College," by Ann Houpt; (3) "New Jersey Community College General…

In this detailed survey of the English offerings of a private secondary school for girls, each grade is divided into semester or smaller thematic units. For each of these units, an overview/rationale is followed by a book list and description of how the unit's activities will help the student develop specific skills in the areas of reading,…