This booklet explains the federal government's purpose and procedures for conducting a survey to determine civil service employees' skills, knowledges, and abilities so that they may be more fully utilized and/or developed. In section I the term "skills survey" is defined and its functions are viewed as part of an upward mobility…

The world economic situation is beset by growing worker dissatisfaction, slowing economic growth, and rising energy and resource costs. A partial solution to these problems may be worker participation in management and ownership. As production has become more dehumanized and workers have become increasingly dissatisfied and alienated, the quality…

In an effort to determine the causes of student attrition, a study was conducted at American River College (ARC) in December 1979, involving: (1) a survey of 1,174 students who had dropped at least one class while at ARC, and (2) a categorization of the reasons for college withdrawal indicated by 591 students on ARC's standardized withdrawal form.…

Attrition among urban engineering students at Stevens Institute of Technology was studied. At the time of the student's college entry, various ability, achievement, personality, interest, and biographical factors were analyzed in an effort to predict student persistence, withdrawal, or academic failure. For the 381 male students who entered the…

The relationship between attribution processes and academic self-concept is studied among students from four ethnic groups in inner-city high schools, and an explanation as to why low achieving minority students do not report low academic self-concepts is sought in this paper. Questionnaires eliciting self-conceptions and responses to hypothetical…

This book argues that the overemphasis in school systems on all students meeting high academic standards is detrimental to meeting the needs of idiosyncratic students in unique life circumstances and with aberrant behavior. The book presents stories from one teacher's experience in teaching remedial reading to seventh and eighth graders in a…

Discusses how self concept and its adaptations to academic success and failure are related to each other and to "cultural therapy." Analyzes research with a German agricultural community undergoing industrialization, and Menominee Indians adapting to majority culture using the Instrumental Activities Inventory (IAI). Extends the analysis…

Organizational innovation is a difficult process. Most innovations fail. If an innovation fails there is a high probability the organization will be fractured. It is easy to break apart an organization. It is much more difficult to build it back up. This is a case study of an innovation in a branch of a large private English language school in…

The family plays a primary socializing role in the lives of boys and girls. The quality of relationships within the family is a particularly important element in the development of adolescent behaviors. A great deal of research demonstrates that family interactions characterized by parental nurturance, warmth, and social support reduce…

These three papers address educational improvement through partnerships between institutions of higher education and elementary/secondary schools. In the first paper, "Partnerships for America's Children," Kati Perry Haycock challenges educators in elementary/secondary schools and in higher education to use partnerships to create a continuum for…

An intensive immersion program in English-as-a-Second-Language instruction developed at Pepperdine University (California), a small liberal arts college, is described. The program was designed for limited-English-speaking foreign students who are at risk for academic failure without additional English language skills. Focus of this discussion is…

The content and activities of the nontraditional component of single parent/homemaker projects across Kentucky was perceived by past participants as not being as helpful as other parts. The study determined whether barriers to nontraditional occupations were valid for Kentucky, identified new barriers, identified components of previous projects,…

This needs assessment was prepared to aid in budget planning of special/compensatory/remedial programs in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District (AISD). District data and student needs were examined for 1986-87 in 10 categories: prekindergarten classes, limited English proficiency, migrant status, special education, student dropouts,…

This document is an executive summary of a report asserting that the under-education of a body of students, known as "at-risk" youth, presents a crisis in American public education that has been overlooked by the educational reform movement of the 1980s. These youth are referred to as "at-risk" because they leave school…

A large amount of research has been done in the past few decades to pinpoint the effects of test anxiety on the performance of those taking tests. Much of that research is listed in this bibliography, which originated with a computer search of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) data base, Psychological Abstracts, Comprehensive…