Though many would like to see a de-emphasis on grades in American higher education, three major reasons prevent this: student motivation, student perception, and the nature of American society. Students need extrinsic motivation and grades are the most effective of all student motivational tools. In addition, as evaluation is always oriented…

This paper identifies differences in educational outcomes for rural students in South Australia compared to their metropolitan peers. This information was compiled by a task force whose aim was to develop an action plan to achieve equality of educational opportunities for rural students. Available information suggests that students in country…

These four newsletter issues focus on topics of interest to female students, faculty, and administrators in higher education. Each issue contains many brief reports on events, news, litigation, legislation, resources, and campus programs on sexual harassment, sexual assault, working in academe and elsewhere, women overseas, women's studies, and…

This publication contains a collection of 95 abstracts of presentations on college student transitions, particularly those of freshmen, transfer students, and seniors. Each abstract is designed to give the reader a short summary of a presentation and to provide the name, address, and telephone number of the person to contact for additional…

In much of the nonindustrialized world, women are the main providers of water, fuel, food, and other basic necessities, and thus often play the part of environmental managers. Because they are more directly connected to the environment, women are the most directly affected by environmental degradation, yet rarely have women been heard in…

The Prosocial Attitude Blank (PAB) was designed to assess interpersonal values and ethical awareness of elementary school children. PAB was administered to 405 elementary students as one component of the evaluation of an intervention program designed to reduce interpersonal conflicts, increase literacy skills, and enhance children's ethical…

This study compared the academic performance and classroom behavior of Hmong-refugee first and second graders to those of classmates from other ethnic backgrounds. Two cohorts of children and families from six inner-city Saint Paul (Minnesota) elementary schools participated in this ongoing longitudinal study, for a total of 528 children entering…

Objectives of the research project described in this report were to explore the African American adolescents' perceptions of the social forces shaping their lives and well being. The project examined: (1) perceptions and understandings of racial discrimination; (2) their views of the value of schooling and the role of school achievement; (3) their…

This study assessed the relationship between teacher efficacy and teacher conceptual level, teacher empowerment, and school culture. Teacher participants (N=430) were primarily Caucasian females who taught in grades K-12, with the majority at the elementary (83 percent) or middle school (11 percent) level. They were evenly represented in the…

A study described metaphorical writing for engaging Mexican American students in productive emergent literacy activities. During a 2-year qualitative study of a bilingual first-grade classroom, data was collected through an ethnography of communication framework that focused on metaphorical student writing and reading and included interviews and…

This paper examines the history of Finnish didactics and the professionalization of teacher education. In Finland, didactics is an emerging academic discipline--the science of teaching or educational science for teacher education--and includes both the subject and contextual knowledge of teaching. At the same time, the context of teaching and…

Sorting practices in the public schools place students, especially those from poor and minority families, at risk. The "talent-development" model is based on the assumption that all students, with adequate support, can learn. This report describes outcomes of the first Talent Development High School, which was established in September 1995 at…

Resilient Asian American students, who have shown outstanding performance and achievement in spite of adverse life conditions in urban schools, were compared with nonresilient, or marginal, students who have not done well academically. The focus was on the students' perceptions of their learning environments in mathematics. Other background…

Tumultuous changes in the world's economic and social orders and technological advances are transforming the world from an industrial society to a knowledge society. The globalization of markets and rise of high-performance companies are altering the workplace dramatically and changing the roles and responsibilities of vocational-technical…

This module is designed to train paraprofessionals who work with individuals who have disabilities. Both the facilitator's edition and the corresponding student's edition are provided. Chapter 1 describes the job roles of paraprofessionals, including characteristics of successful paraprofessionals. Chapter 2 describes the work environment,…