The study found that high-risk college freshmen (N=74) who successfully completed a freshman orientation course were less likely to drop out and achieved higher grade point averages over a three-year period than students not in an orientation course. (Author/MLW)

Thirty classes of fifth graders (n=536) were surveyed to see if their criteria for academic success, beliefs about the causes of success, and perceptions of teachers' expectations involved the coordination of personal values and contextual norms. Beliefs about causes of success have some relation to personal identities and students'…

This study of students' community college experience found that two students with mental retardation differed from two nondisabled students in their not having grown up with an expectation of attending college and in a lack of career and transition planning. All students reported positive social and interpersonal experiences, but had not developed…

Presents four categories of motivational characteristics for science students: achievement, curiosity, conscientiousness, and sociability. Asserts that most students exhibit one or more of these traits. Discusses changing correlations among characteristics, gender, and grade level. (MJP)

Male and female research participants (n=254) self-disclosed to a male or female confederate with whom they anticipated or did not anticipate further interaction. Women disclosed more intimately, with increasing emotion, and displayed more topical responsiveness with female than with male targets. Only the highly masculine men reliably disclosed…

Explored the influence of demographic, sociocultural, and risk proneness indicators on age at first intercourse, number of lifetime sexual partners, and number of pregnancies among Latina adolescents. Found gender role orientation delays first intercourse, but following that, acculturation and substance experimentation are more important…

Examined the role of sexual orientation and gender-related personality traits in disordered eating attitudes and behavior in Australia. Self-report measures of homosexual and heterosexual males and females indicated that both sexual orientation and gender traits affected disordered eating in men and women. For both genders, irrespective of sexual…

Reviews notable education books of 2001: "Not in Front of the Children" (Marjorie Heins); "The other Boston Busing Story" (Susan E. Eaton); "Another Planet" (Elinor Burkett); "Parents Under Siege" (James Garbarino and Claire Bedard); "Radical Equations" (Robert P. Moses and Charles E. Cobb, Jr.); "School" (Sheila Curran Bernard and Sarah Mondale);…

Evaluation of the "Choices-in-Transition Intervention" program with 41 low-income, predominantly ethnic minority group high school students with disabilities found the program resulted in significant increases in students' help-recruiting skills. Ninety percent of students received help with their goals and 85 percent met at least one of their…

Investigated the explicit and implicit ways in which fifth-grade teachers communicated an emphasis on mastery and performance goal orientations to their students. Found that teachers perceived as having a high mastery focus spoke about learning as an active process, and this was reflected in their practices, which emphasized formal assessments,…

An examination of the literature on the characteristics of at-risk students largely cites demographics, socio-economic factors and minority status as identifying factors (DeRidder, 1988; Green and Scott, 1995; Peng, Lee, and Walberg, 1992; Rodriguez, 1997). According to the National Center for Education Statistics (1994), minority students of low…

This article features Safe Haven Project, a comprehensive school-based education and victim services program that focuses on anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) bias in diverse neighborhoods of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). In its effort to help schools articulate and practice a vision of a more…

Distance education programmes warrant the use of innovative intervention practices to enhance student learning experiences. Academic and social empathy by faculty has been shown to enhance student retention in programmes along with their critical thinking abilities. Using Holmberg's theory of teaching-learning conversations as the guiding…

This article examines themes of academic resilience in the descriptions of academic achievement by three students at Benjamin High School, one of the least affluent high schools in Bayside, Florida. Through ethnographically informed interviews conducted during their senior year, coherent themes emerge that provide insight into these students'…

The purpose of this study was to identify variables that facilitate the academic success of college students with learning disabilities. Twenty recent college graduates with documented learning disabilities were interviewed using a semi-structured format. An analysis of the transcripts of the interviews revealed eight common themes, many of which…