Describes the Beginning Teacher Effectiveness Training program, intended to help beginning teachers eliminate unnecessary daily decisions, establish effective routines, and use effective teaching practices, by close cooperation with a mentor (an experienced colleague) and through encouragement, praise, and reassurance. (SR)

Two groups of infants were studied to demonstrate that changes in reaching are determined by the interaction of organismic and environmental constraints. The infants were placed in three different positions and observed for quantity and quality of reaching. Results indicated that both environmental constraints and growth contribute to reaching in…

Presents an empirical analysis of principals' influences on public high school students' academic achievement, using "High School and Beyond" data. Principal characteristics and variables designed to capture less tangible aspects of the principal's role are included in educational production functions. Results suggest that principals…

No differences in goal orientation or locus of control were apparent among 151 New Mexico adolescents: 37 long-term GRADS (Graduation, Reality, and Dual Role Skills) participants, 46 new to GRADS, and 68 controls. Pregnant and nonpregnant girls differed in their ranking of most important goals. (SK)

To help beginning principals create unique professional development plans, Texas A & M University Principals' Center has developed the Management Profile built around a videotaped interview of open-ended questions. Trained assessors review the video, compare responses with a standards matrix, and encourage principals to choose a mentor/coach…

Studied whether the goal orientations of college students affect achievement, strategy use, and metacognition with 448 undergraduates. Results supported the view that a strong learning orientation facilitates the development of cognitive skills for academic achievement independent of one's performance orientation. (SLD)

Every college alumni program needs a mission statement specifying why it exists. In creating a statement, administrators should consider who designs it, drafts it, must endorse it, must adopt it. When institutional purpose and resources change, it can be redrafted. It should be an active guide, regularly reviewed and used. (MSE)

Examined relationship between religiosity of 285 mothers and their offspring, taking both sex and sexual orientation of offspring into account. Female offspring were found to be more religious than male offspring, and their religiosity tended to more closely resemble that of their mothers. Offspring who were not exclusively heterosexual tended to…

For a middle school, family involvement in school life begins with the orientation program for incoming students. An effective transition program can help parents and prospective students anticipate a new school's academic and social expectations. This article describes a Vermont middle school's transition program, highlighting planning and…

Presents 7 experiments with 118 undergraduates tracking multiple randomly moving visual elements under various conditions. Observers spontaneously grouped the target elements and directed attention toward this coherent nonrigid virtual object. Results support object-based theories of attention and show that perceptual grouping, a purely…

Giving a school's best teachers the challenge of supervision will empower them to assume greater responsibility, decision making, accountability, and professionalism. Suggested guidelines for supervising teachers include holding an annual meeting with student teachers, preparing classes for student teachers, demonstrating good teaching and…

Schools need not rule out fund raising, trips, and contests. Well-organized groups of music students washing cars at local gas stations can create more positive publicity and goodwill toward music programs than can hundreds of news releases. Exchange concerts, trips to nearby schools, and competition against a predetermined scale can substitute…

Holland's Self-Directed Search, a lifestyle questionnaire, and Bem Sex Role Inventory were completed by 63 gay and 60 heterosexual males. Gay men's career interests were less Realistic or Investigative and more Artistic/Social on Holland's scale; their aspirations were less traditional than heterosexuals'. Bem Femininity and Masculinity scores…

Describes an interdisciplinary unit (in which students solve a crime) to begin the school year for seventh graders. Suggests that the unit serves to introduce students to science, math, social studies, and English courses while they get acquainted with the people and places in a large junior high school. (SR)

Discusses racism, sexism, and sexual orientation through an analysis of the play "M. Butterfly." Focusing on the French diplomat, Gallimard, the essay discusses sexual orientation, explores Gallimard's racist investments in his orientalized vision of Song, and discusses his attempt to explain his love affair as heterosexual love gone…