With a view to understanding developmental education, this project studied 100 college students at Champlain-Saint Lawrence College (Quebec) to measure their motivations and perceptions of ability and to see how different types of students responded to assistance. Students with a learning orientation (LO), who viewed ability as derived principally…

This book, also available on audiocassette, is written for preadolescents and adolescents with learning disorders, and offers them empowering suggestions for overcoming their problems in school. The first chapter deals with basic concepts related to learning disorders and brain function. It emphasizes that there are many types of learning…

This longitudinal study was designed to ascertain if those teacher candidates (N=388) having failed to make or having made a more or less successful transition into the teaching field 7 years after the commencement of teacher preparation differed in academic aptitudes and academic abilities assessed upon commencement of teacher preparation. MANOVA…

This longitudinal study was designed to compare the academic, personal, and family characteristics of those teacher candidates persisting and not persisting through teacher preparation and the early years of classroom teaching. The candidates' (N=551) personal, family, and academic characteristics were collected upon commencement of teacher…

Using data from the same source as that employed in Herrnstein and Murray's book, "The Bell Curve," this study reexamined links between the test scores of mothers and children, paying close attention to what the scores measure and whether these measurements mean the same things for blacks and whites. The study replicated Herrnstein and…

A common concern raised by teachers from secondary schools and junior colleges in Singapore is the apparent inability or reluctance of adolescents to think critically and originally. Adolescent thought processes are probably shaped by the change in intellectual pace and quality between the primary and secondary school curriculum. This study of…

Seven false but common assumptions about bilingual learners are examined, and whole language principles offering alternatives to those assumptions are presented. The seven assumptions include the following: (1) learning proceeds from part to whole; (2) classes should be teacher-centered; (3) lessons should serve students' future needs; (4)…

The conceptual framework for the instructionally sensitive assessment that guided the analyses of data from the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) are described. The intellectual rationale for the project effort and the current draft version of the guiding conception of "instructionally sensitive psychometrics" are discussed,…

A proposed paradigm for restructuring public schools has at least two essential components: (1) schools and school personnel must recognize the strengths that students bring to school and draw on these capacities to nurture achievement; and (2) schooling should be based on collaboration among its many constituencies, including school personnel,…

Pennsylvania does not have a legislatively mandated program in place for assessing teacher education programs in institutions of higher education. This study was conducted to examine how Pennsylvania's public and private universities and colleges assess the quality of their teacher education programs. Deans and/or chairs of teacher education…

This analysis is the third in the Center's series on child poverty in America. The first part of this study is a historical view of trends in child poverty by race and Hispanic origin for children in families below the age of 18 years. The second part presents projections of child poverty rates and levels for the three largest racial groups to the…

The Applied Biological and Agribusiness Interest Inventory was revised to reflect seven agricultural career clusters and to measure agricultural interest of eighth-grade students. A study conducted in Pennsylvania tested the interests of 8th-grade students and then developed scoring keys using 10th-grade students as the basis for the key. The…

This paper presents a research summary on ability grouping and tracking, and makes recommendations to school practitioners on successful alternative strategies to educate children from diverse backgrounds. The research reveals little evidence that ability grouping improves academic achievement, while overwhelming evidence exists that it retards…

The results of a study of six rural Appalachian high schools in Kentucky and Tennessee are presented. Multiple data sources were used to identify the relative effectiveness of these schools. Data were collected via administration of the: Wayson School Climate and Context Inventory to a stratified random sample of 20 faculty; Likert's…

Issues related to conception, assessment, decision-making, and instructional programming for the retarded in the adaptive behavior domain are discussed. Issues in the conception of adaptive behavior include its relationship to other constructs such as cognitive competence and emotional competence, the nearly universal use of certain domains,…