A project was conducted to redesign the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education required student tracking form to provide for better student tracking. The Student Intake and Data form supplied by the PDE from program year 1996-97 was used as a point of comparison, and evaluations of this form by…

Factors commonly associated with underachievement in the research literature include low self-concept, low self-motivation/self-regulation, negative attitude toward school, and negative peer influence. This study attempts to isolate these four factors within a secondary school population. The purpose of the study was to design a valid and reliable…

The description of achievement levels is important to the process of reporting student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). A process was designed to develop achievement level descriptions (ALDs) for writing and civics. To begin, focus groups were conducted in each of the four NAEP regions for both writing and…

This report provides information on the educational experiences and plans of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) (California) 1997 graduates. Seniors from regular, continuation, and opportunity high schools and schools of choice and for handicapped students were surveyed. In October 1996, there were 27,387 seniors in the LAUSD schools.…

The extent to which classroom instruction and assessment activities in mathematics are aligned to the State of Maryland's Learning Objectives and the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) was studied by examining the underlying structure of the mathematics teacher questionnaire developed and administered to teachers in the 1996-97…

This article describes and analyzes a task-based exercise in a college-level English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) class. This exercise required the learners to participate in the exchange of information and the accomplishment of one particular goal--in this case the construction of a Web page in English. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate attitudes of library science students towards censoring controversial materials on the World Wide Web viewed in the library by patrons. The study suggests that some library science students will have moral dilemmas in supplying information that is contrary to their personal beliefs and that factors such as…

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) (California) conducts an annual survey of the educational experiences and plans of its high school graduates. Results from the 1998 survey are analyzed and summarized in this report, with results by ethnicity and gender reported only when there are large group differences. In fall 1997, 28,316…

This study explored the current demographic profile of faculty governance leaders, focusing on communication style. A total of 223 faculty senate leaders (or equivalent faculty governance leaders) completed a mailed questionnaire requesting information on demographic variables and communication behaviors. The questionnaire included the Personal…

This master's research project investigated teaching practices in a Native community school in Manitoba in relation to the school's high dropout rate. The school was located on an isolated Native reserve in northern Manitoba, providing education through grades 9-10. In contrast to successful Native education programs elsewhere that are based in…

This report presents the findings from a personal computer (PC) and Internet Survey administered to Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) students in spring 1999. The survey measured students' access to and knowledge of personal computers, e-mail, and the Internet--both at home and at work. There was a 65% response rate, with 353 of 540…

Academic collaboration among students takes place not only inside the classrooms but outside of class as well. This study investigated such out-of-class academic collaboration among Singaporean polytechnic students as they worked on assignments in which their instructors had made collaboration mandatory. Data were collected via questionnaires…

Concerns about the quality of the nation's public education system have drawn attention to key elements of teacher effectiveness (Darling-Hammond 2000; Lewis et al. 1999; Mayer, Mullens, and Moore 2001; National Commission on Teaching and America's Future 1996). While there is little consensus on what constitutes high-quality teachers, past…

Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) Examinations in Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Comparative Government and Politics were studied to examine college course performance and gender differences. It was concluded that students who had received college credit for AP performed as well or better in higher-level college courses in Macroeconomics and…

Because of the extensive and sometimes costly expansions in the educational offering of the rapidly growing secondary schools, the present need for interpretation is probably more insistent at this level of the educational ladder than at any other. It will be helpful to those in charge of secondary education to know what high schools are doing to…