Based on the assumption that the problem of the at-risk, low-achieving student lies at least in part with staff attitudes, the Special Populations Project at Research for Better Schools developed a survey instrument to measure staff attitudes and perceptions. The "Assessment of School Needs for Low Achieving Students: Staff Survey"…

Practices are identified for use in teaching vocational education to students with mental disabilities. Iowa's definition of vocational education is presented, along with definitions for seven major delivery areas of vocational education: home economics, industrial arts/technology, trades and industry, business/office education,…

As more and more students arrive at colleges increasingly unprepared, the issue of how to teach effective study skills becomes more important. Yet, research on study skills is far from conclusive. Study skills may be defined as any activity or behavior which enhances the learning and recall of new academic material, and includes such activities as…

An overview is presented of research findings on how teacher expectations of student performance may alter the ways that teachers treat students, and the possible negative effects of such differential treatment on the behavior and learning of students for whom the teacher holds low expectations. A discussion follows on the teaching implications of…

In the fall of 1980 the Pittsburgh Board of Education embarked on a program of change and improvement for all public schools in the city. A comprehensive needs assessment was conducted by groups with broad school and community interests. The need to improve student achievement in basic skills was identified as the priority. The Monitoring…

Issues involved in teaching and assessing communicative competence are identified and applied to adolescent native English speakers with low levels of academic achievement. A distinction is drawn between transactional versus interactional speech, short versus long speaking turns, and spoken language influenced or not influenced by written…

This report: (1) describes the operation of a junior high school learning laboratory for low achieving students; and (2) presents findings and conclusions of an assessment of its impact. Seventh and eighth grade students with average abilities but with failing marks in mathematics, social studies and science, and reading were participants. These…

Memory has been defined as traces left behind by past information processing. One approach to the study of everyday memory is to isolate reliable differences between individuals in the ways in which they process information when preparing for test events. The Inventory of Learning Processes, consisting of four scales, i.e., Deep Processing,…

The effects of two methods of testing students on student grades were studied in 1982 with two economics classes that were taught by the same instructor. One class, which involved four 1-hour lectures weekly, received the normal four block-form examinations. The 34 students in this class were the control group. The 36 students in the other class…

The Reading Assistance Program at San Jose State University was introduced through the aid of credential candidates from the reading specialist, educational counseling, and bilingual-multicultural specialist programs. Low-achieving university freshmen were taught in small groups using the jigsaw technique in which each student is given a piece of…

This program, funded under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was designed to provide continuity of instruction in reading and mathematics for eligible pregnant school age girls in New York City. It was also designed to provide bilingual English-Spanish instruction for eligible students. The target population for the program was…

This paper is one of a series on strategies for urban school improvement, which examines the interaction between pupil performance and family background. Instructional leadership, instructional emphasis, school climate, and teacher expectation are identified as factors which contribute to major differences in achievement levels among schools.…

Observations were made while psychologically evaluating Korean school children in the greater Chicago area. The observations were drawn from work with Korean children who were referred for psychological evaluation because of learning or behavioral/emotional problems. Initial demographic data was taken describing the children's age, length of time…

A group of 3,000 7th through 12th graders were surveyed to investigate their perceptions of how much teachers cared about them and the degree to which they felt teachers urged them to achieve. Of the adolescents surveyed, 39% felt that teachers never or rarely seem to care about them. This is a crucial dimension, since teacher warmth has been…

A sample was taken of 120 children in grades 1, 3, and 5 in two rural Newfoundland communities. To examine behaviors related to school success, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised), Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, and the Concept Assessment Test were administered to all subjects. In order to assess the correlation…