This report examines motivational variables and support structures that influenced the success of African American females who graduated with honors from a rural Georgia high school. Case studies focus on the nature of the honor graduates' friendships and the role that friendship may have played in motivating these students to become honor…

Mapping Our City is a two-year project in which middle school teachers and students in Boston explore the uses of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in project-based science, environmental education, and geography. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and is being field tested in three Boston middle school science classrooms.…

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has undertaken the Equal Educational Opportunity Project to develop a series of six reports focusing on the opportunities available to students in American public elementary and secondary education. This first volume in the series evaluates and analyzes the history, performance, regulations, policies, and…

This study, one of several examining a decline in the predictive validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and high school grades between 1975 and 1988, asks whether the criterion, freshman grade point average (FGPA), has changed. College Board tests usually thought of as predictors were used as proxies for the concurrent academic…

This chapter examines trends and issues concerning inequities in participation by ethnic/minority children in gifted education programs. The first section provides a brief historical perspective on past trends and issues concerned with the identification of gifted ethnic/minority students. Theories of cultural deficits, cultural differences,…

This study focused on information provided by cooperating teachers and student teachers (N=140) in a 2-week student teaching experience for second year secondary students in the teacher education program at the University of Saskatchewan. The analysis focused on cooperating teachers' comments on the evaluation form; this information is compared to…

The Multidimensional Motivation Instrument and the Classroom Environment Scale were used to examine the effects of the variables motivation (achievement motivation, academic self-concept, social self-concept, and emotional self-concept) and the classroom learning environment (involvement, affiliation, teacher support, task orientation, order and…

R. J. Sternberg and others found that the types of behaviors reported by laypersons as characterizing different types of intelligence varied across the different groups tested, and that a person's concept of intelligence affects the manner in which he or she evaluates the intelligence of others. Two experiments by Sternberg et al. were replicated.…

By studying the process by which disadvantaged and low-achieving high school students are assigned to classes and special programs, how and why disadvantaged students are placed in inappropriate programs can be understood. Reasons exist to question the assumption that students are assigned to programs rationally on the basis of information about…

This book originally written in 1978, houses a pessimistic view of American culture that the author sees no reason to modify. The central argument is that the national faith in individual initiative and free opportunity has become a breeding ground for guilt about our own limited successes and prejudice against all who exhibit signs of failure.…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in the United States know and can do in various academic subjects. The 1996 NAEP in mathematics assessed the current level of mathematical achievement as a mechanism for informing education reform. In 1996, 44…

This paper presents three case studies of gifted children with a disability. Emphasis is on the importance of identifying the gifted abilities of such individuals and providing for their special needs. Sarah is a 14-year-old girl with severe athetoid cerebral palsy who has above average mathematical ability and general knowledge. The use of…

This paper provides an overview of hyperlexia, a condition found in children who have precocious reading skills accompanied by significant problems in language, learning, and social skills. These children are described as having superior auditory and visual memory but seem to have better memory for isolated words than words recalled in context.…

Mathematics achievement and the relationship of low socioeconomic status (SES) students with teachers have been a major concern for educators. Although there are social and economic explanations of failure of low SES students, ultimate success and failure may be significantly affected by differing personal beliefs about learning among students and…

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 assures that no person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program of activity receiving Federal financial assistance. These requirements, which apply to all…