Through focus group interviews, this study explores at risk high school students' perceptions of their communities. Participants are members of a Maine Upward Bound program that pre-identified them as low SES, and first-generation college bound students. My purpose for this study is to discover if students who are at risk of public school failure…

This digest reviews research on the status of rural student achievement and schooling conditions and describes variations across the nation and the states. Between 1992 and 1996, rural students began to outperform nonrural students on the 8th-grade mathematics assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Despite this aggregate…

This paper reports the findings of a 2-year project based in the UK, which examined the perceptions and beliefs of disenfranchised pupils, their parents, school practitioners, and educational professionals about the causes and dynamics of disaffection from school. The study employed mainly qualitative methods (interviews and focus groups) to look…

The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 by a group of Massachusetts parents who felt that a child is a person, worthy of full respect as a human being. It was intended that a nurturing environment be created in which the children themselves chose what they wished to do and scheduled their time. Democracy was a cornerstone of the school's…

The Sudbury Valley School is a nontraditional private school founded in 1968 as a place where each student could be trusted fully to make every decision about how to grow into an adult. This book describes a study conducted in 1991 to determine what became of Sudbury students after they left. Questionnaires and interviews were used to gather data…

Congressional testimony is presented concerning school buildings and their connection to student health, behavior, and learning, including a review of selected empirical studies conducted over the past 30 years showing an explicit relationship between physical characteristics of school buildings and educational outcomes. The factors responsible…

This study compared the outcomes and experiences of 275 older and 442 younger liberal arts students who had transferred from California community colleges to a research I California university in fall 1994 and spring 1995. The study's conceptual perspective was that of "quality of effort," which considers both what the institution offers…

As part of Johnson County Community College's (JCCC) enrollment management efforts, a questionnaire was designed to gather information about why applicants do not enroll at the college. Survey instruments were mailed to 1,129 potential students in December 1996, resulting in 218 completed surveys. Results are presented for the following areas: (1)…

This book for young people examines the history, purpose, and daily routine of government-operated boarding schools for American Indians and tells the personal stories, often in their own words, of several young students. Chapter 1 describes the journey to Pennsylvania of the first Indian children to attend the Carlisle school in 1879. Chapter 2…

The American Institute of Architects convened a 1997 conference to explore the issues specific to designing specialties in educational facilities caused by educational reform's emerging methodologies and teaching philosophies. This document discusses the presenter's views of these issues in the following areas: creating engaging learning…

For students to develop to their fullest, educators must understand that traditional notions of potential can have a negative effect. Educators must understand the nature of potential to anticipate and promote the emergence of qualities not yet evident, as well as to capitalize on potentials already manifest. (IS)

Legal points school officials must consider before conducting student searches are reviewed. Some courts have viewed school personnel as agents of the state, subject to all Fourth Amendment limitations. Most, however, have tended to support the doctrine of in loco parentis, permitting some searches on grounds of less than probable cause. (PP)

The potential impacts of secondary school overcrowding upon student attitudes, behavior, and academic performance, and student-teacher, administrator interactions comprise the essential content of the paper. A review of current literature is presented. Implications and a discussion of possible alternatives to school overcrowding conclude this…

Alberta surveys of 231 junior high school students and 28 administrators found that students intentionally did not report most incidents of violence for fear of reprisals, believed that violent behaviors are normal, and were not satisfied with how victims and perpetrators of violence were dealt with by school staff. Administrators' and students'…

Two interviews with Akira, a 7-year-old student, describe life at a Japanese residential free school. Modeled after the Summerhill School, the main components are voluntary lessons, self-government through weekly schoolwide meetings and smaller dormitory meetings, and extensive experiential learning through project work. Akira likes Kinokuni…