Presents a longitudinal analysis of school performance declines among neglected and abused children, using the maltreatment and school histories of 1,369 children in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Significant relationships between maltreatment and declines in performance were found in diverse school outcomes. (SLD)

Describes problems associated with student-promotion systems and practices and specifies the situations in which grade retention works best. Offers recommendations for rethinking the policy and practice of retention. (LMI)

Describes how modeling, guided practice in controlled materials, monitoring and corrective feedback, and independent practice were used to teach contractions to six low-performing second graders, including a child with learning disabilities. Planning and implementation of the lessons are described and a sample lesson plan is provided. (CR)

Argues that "A Nation at Risk" failed to address adequately problems of urban education, and thus the achievement gap between minority and white students still exists. Describes several problems that still plague low-performing urban schools, such as bureaucratic aversion to change, high levels of poverty, and low teacher quality and…

Examined ways early childhood teachers in three Australian schools rationalized children's literacy failure on Queensland's Year 2 Diagnostic Net. Found that teachers' narratives clustered into three groups: blaming families, blaming children, and moving beyond blame to focus on teaching; all teachers based pedagogical intervention decisions on a…

Studied how attitudinal and instructional variables differed for students in Cyprus, Hong Kong, and the United States and how these variables were related to mathematics performance on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). (SLD)

Hierarchical analysis of a test battery of sentence span, preload, and concurrent memory demand tasks was used to identify subgroups of children with different patterns of memory function. For each subgroup, performance strengths and weaknesses were related to reading, mathematics, and spelling performance. (Author/DB)

Proposes that parents of children attending public elementary schools with high poverty and low achievement profiles be paid to attend school with their children. Parents would also participate in personal development sessions and training sessions meeting individual needs and goals. This approach should improve the community's work force and…

The study compared responses to the Wide Range Interest Opinion Test of 77 mentally retarded, 97 learning-disabled, and 30 low-achieving alternative education middle-school and high-school students. Findings suggested significant differences in vocational motivation between mentally retarded and non-retarded students. (DB)

The complexity of social interaction in classrooms leads many students to perform poorly because they do not understand what behavior the teachers expect. It appears that some students learn from their school experience to be less active in obtaining relevant academic information through questioning. (JD)

A mentoring program for both gifted and nongifted low- or under-achieving students in grades three-six was developed to improve students' academic standing and self-esteem. Mentors and mentees discuss difficulties with school or social relationships, become involved in special projects, etc. The program has also improved bonds among faculty…

Discusses new areas of investigation for causes of underachievement in black children, drawing on pertinent work in the United States, recent British research, and several personal accounts by black teachers. The article concludes by highlighting the role of black educators in multiethnic schools and points to their dual position in relation to…

A study with 43 fourth graders and 32 fifth graders demonstrated that once they learned a poem to the same degree, fast and slow learners recalled about the same amount after 7 days, but when they relearned the poem, fast learners recalled more after 14 and 28 days. (SLD)

Relationships among low-level reading skills, sentence verification, and error detection were studied using 91 fourth graders. Error detection was best predicted by subjects' tendency to generate inferences while reading. Literal text comprehension depended on low-level reading; strategic reading competence reflected a tendency to go beyond…

Describes an effective approach (including four fun activities) to promote poor readers' word recognition skills. (SR)