The Multiple Activities Curriculum, developed by the Stanford University Center for Educational Research, broadens the scope of classroom experiences and thinking skills required, so that students weak in the traditional academic skills of reading and language have more chance to participate in class and to feel worthwhile. (Author/SJL)

This study examined the effect of the ratio of high-aptitude to low-aptitude students in a classroom upon mathematics achievement. The hypothesis tested was that both high- and low-aptitude students in "more favorable" classrooms would outperform similar students in "less favorable" classrooms. (Author/GK)

Introduces the Supervised Study Program, a support program for average ability nonachievers that guarantees success in return for commitment and performance. (Author/WD)

The author found that her first grade class of low achievers could and would answer higher-order questions when the questions concerned their favorite television shows and characters. Sample questions reflecting such thinking skills as classification, analogy, inference, and sequence are provided. (SJL)

Describes an informal study that yielded information about differences between good and poor sixth-grade spellers in their awareness that spelling involves prediction strategies and in their awareness of letter frequencies, pattern frequencies, and positional constraints on spelling. Outlines a few implications for spelling instruction. (GT)

In order to identify the relationships between the attitudes and perceptions of peer pressure and the academic achievement of academically able male adolescents, this study compares the school attitudes of high achieving and low achieving Black male youth. (EF)

Describes the five language programs at a Toronto high school. (RL)

Presents abstracts of three documents from the ERIC junior college collection that deal with two-year college remedial and developmental education. (DR)

Presents a theoretical model of reading that takes into account the principal differences between skilled and deficient readers; describes a study that tested the relevance of the model by comparing good, average, and poor partially sighted readers and by studying how training affected the reading process. (GT)

Reports that the use of aids imbedded in textbook prose increased the reading comprehension of college freshmen identified as reading below the fiftieth percentile on a standardized reading test. (GT)

This study sought to determine the best predictors of low academic achievement at age eight. Subjects were 89 Black children suspected of neurological impairment at age seven. While age four intelligence was the best overall predictor, the seriated factors were not effective in predicting subsequent academic achievement. (SJL)

Reports on research indicating that the results of a study conducted by D. D. Johnson and R. L. Venezky (reported in the Summer 1976 issue of this journal) are not generalizable to nonproficient adult readers, suggesting that the vowel cluster pronunciation preferences of adult readers vary as a function of reading competency. (GT)

Research on working poor families participating in an anti-poverty initiative in Milwaukee found 60% of families had at least one child with significant problems (learning, school achievement and/or behavior, retardation, or other disabilities). Comparison with other families with children with troubles found the program families adapted less…

Describes a Chinese Canadian immigrant family that is encountering difficulties with schooling, demonstrating the complex interrelationship between home literacy, culture, and politics of schooling. Findings suggest that cultural mismatch theory alone cannot explain minority school failure. Rather, multilevel interactions, including cultural…

Discusses the disparity in academic achievement between African American males and males and females from other ethnic groups, recommending after school programs to provide services for addressing and decreasing these disparities. Notes policy issues affecting the targeted population, presents four programs that have successfully improved academic…