The University of Miami (Florida) has both institutional and department-specific task forces studying seven planning issues from different perspectives, to be coordinated with the central strategic planning process at the appropriate time. Issues include curriculum, interdisciplinary program development, administrative productivity, faculty…

German higher education differs substantially from American undergraduate study, and American students planning to study there should be prepared for less accessible faculty, more independence, little organized student life, less academic structure, and potential problems of credit transfer. (Author/MSE)

Asserts that music teachers often have less than ideal teaching situations that may result in lowered teacher morale. Contends that music teachers must choose to improve morale by becoming more involved in school activities. Provides suggestions for improving one's individual morale and the perceptions of teaching colleagues toward music teachers.…

Analysis of a panel study of 260 women at 4 colleges (women's college, coordinate of men's college, long-time coeducational college, recently coeducational college) to evaluate why alumnae of women's colleges succeed more than graduates of coeducational colleges. Role models and college activities and their effects on self-esteem are considered.…

Offers suggestions for campus-activities programmers on how to minimize liability for problems with concerts and other student-planned campus events. Discussion covers prevention of monetary loss, breach of contract issues, and preventing personal injuries and property damage. Specific preventive actions and policies are discussed. (MSE)

Examined predictors of nonmarital motherhood between eighth and twelfth grade in nationally representative sample. Found that risk for early motherhood was predicted by low individual educational performance measures, being held back in school, and repeatedly changing schools. Lower risk was associated with substantial involvement in school clubs…

Examined institutional advantages of school-age child care (SACC) programming in schools. A study of 63 SACC programs in 2 southeastern states revealed that community support, number of extracurricular activities, and frequency of academic activities significantly contributed to predicting advantages associated with SAC programming. (Contains 23…

Gives an introduction to three articles addressing the potential value of a network of after-school computer clubs called the Fifth Dimension. The articles demonstrate improvements in computer literacy (near transfer), ability to understand arithmetic and word problems (medium transfer), and reading and mathematics achievement (far transfer). (AEF)

Examines the effects of participation in the Fifth Dimension after-school computer program on far transfer achievement in the subject areas of reading and math. Provides evidence that children who participate in the Fifth Dimension master knowledge and skill structures and acquire practices that mediate their performance on global measures of…

Studied after-school activities of low-income, at-risk Mexican American middle school students, and examined relationships between these activities and substance use. Results with almost 1,200 students show a general lack of participation in organized activities by these students. Those involved in unsupervised after-school activities outside the…

Investigates the relationships between participating in traditional extracurricular activities and the academic achievement levels of minority male and female students in poor urban schools. Figures from a national database (24,355 eighth graders) show that in almost 50% of cases, male participation in extracurriculars was associated with lower…

Involvement in various college activities and educational gains of black students (n=1,200) attending a historically white institution were compared. Involvement in academic activities had a greater impact on gains of students at the black institution, and social engagement was more important for black students at the white institution. (Author)

It has been suggested that overscheduling of upper-class youth might underlie the high distress and substance use documented among them. This assumption was tested by considering suburban 8th graders' involvement in different activities along with their perceptions of parental attitudes toward achievement. Results indicated negligible evidence for…

The authors examined the relations between participation in a range of high school extracurricular contexts and developmental outcomes in adolescence and young adulthood among an economically diverse sample of African American and European American youths. In general, when some prior self-selection factors were controlled, 11th graders'…

This study investigates the extent to which forms of prosocial behaviour and values of social responsibility are related to various domains of political culture among Australian youth. Using data from a survey of 1311 senior secondary students from the ACT and South Australia, it was found that 14 per cent had participated in one or more volunteer…