Although college faculty often complain about class attendance, little data are available on why students miss classes and especially why absences are more common late in the semester. To explore this phenomenon, students' abilities to persevere in an academic setting and relate that to their actual attendance and performance in a college class…

Schools offer the possibility of providing safe, supportive structures for children whose lives have been marked by chaos. They can enable vulnerable children to develop competencies which can help to protect them from the effects of traumatic backgrounds. When a child's lived experience falls outside the boundaries of normative experience, as in…

This book was designed to answer the question, "What should schools do to minimize the likelihood of student suicide?" Written by professionals representing the fields of law, psychology, and education, the legal portion of the book addresses the issue of what should be done, the psychological section on what is to be done, and the…

This publication presents the proceedings of the invitational forum on student conduct and violence in schools in Canada. Participants identified several key issues related to student conduct and violence in schools. Those internal to schools include school climate, student values and attitudes, consequences of behavior, and peer culture. Issues…

In an effort to determine the underlying roots of kindergartners' unruly behavior during dismissal time, this study examined the children's conversational topics during classroom dismissal routines. Using participant observation as the primary method of data collection, researchers observed seven dismissals, each lasting approximately 45 minutes,…

The ways that high school staff value, use, and share information about student background, performance, and behavior are an essential component of school improvement, especially in decisions involving the placement, instruction, and progress of disadvantaged students. Using survey data from seven high schools, the study summarized in this report…

Many schools have been dealing with youth suicide and other death-related issues. From the experiences of the schools and other community organizations have emerged workable practices and procedures which can be implemented for general use. Schools can now develop and implement comprehensive plans to deal with death issues using a variety of…

When beginning or experienced teachers lack control over pupils in their classrooms, they do not experience job satisfaction and become increasingly ineffective in their classroom work. Based on a review of the literature, this paper provides: (1) practical, workable strategies to assist experienced and inexperienced teachers to become more…

This study investigated the correlation between attendance and grade point average among high school juniors, hypothesizing that there would not be a significant correlation between the two. The sample consisted of 32 students randomly selected from among 172 high school students enrolled in a Chicago public school during school years 1995-1996…

This study collected information regarding the direct and indirect management techniques employed by elementary teachers to control inappropriate student behavior and its relationship to discipline referral rates. The study also examined whether effective management techniques affected student on-task rates. A group of 270 elementary school…

Alternative schools and area learning centers are individualized, nontraditional programs that lead to a high school diploma. To assess how students were doing in these schools and learning centers, the Minnesota Student Survey was administered in 1996 to 3,764 voluntary participants. The highlights of the results are reported here. To gain an…

This paper presents an analysis of adolescent violent behavior in schools. The paper offers an overview that includes student violence and discipline issues, school law, special services for at-risk students, and programs to enhance the opportunities for successful interventions. The paper is also a vehicle for a new discipline-management…

This study examined the thinking and decision making of expert and novice teachers in three stages of decision making: practive (planning), interactive (actual teaching), and postactive (evaluative reflection). Novices in the study were five student teachers, and experts were their five cooperating teachers in a suburban elementary school. Data…

Schools in Scotland that develop a policy on bullying to which everyone is committed have been successful in reducing the frequency of bullying. Students rarely tell on bullies, not only from fear of their persecutor's revenge, but because they have also learned that adults either show no interest in their problem or give bad advice when they do…

This study examines how teachers evaluate student performance in five inner-city high schools that serve disadvantaged student populations. The study is based on in-depth interviews with 78 teachers. Each teacher responded to a series of questions about the practices employed to assess the academic performance of their students. Analyses of…