Although grounded in theory and research, this book is a practical text that specifies how to assess students and how to use assessment results to provide effective instruction for low achieving readers and writers. Forty sample lessons, described in step-by-step fashion, cover virtually every major skill or strategy. The emphasis is on teaching…

This report presents data on the performance of New York City public schools over the past 5 years. Only 70 percent of students complete high school, either by obtaining a diploma or a GED, within 7 years of initial enrollment. Only 44 percent of black students and 39 percent of Hispanic students, complete high school within 4 years. While passage…

To explore question-answering strategy differences between young "good" and older "poor" readers, 60 fifth and sixth grade good readers and 60 ninth and tenth grade poor readers responded to questions about passages read and reinspected. Strategies used were inferred through analysis of response errors. Implications for reading…

Opinions of 503 support services professionals in Iowa were surveyed regarding reforms in service delivery designed to integrate special and regular education programs for students with low achievement. The majority of psychologists, social workers, and special education consultants supported providing services for students without formal…

Reveals shortcomings of elementary school evaluation and norm-referenced tests (NRTs) by studying the linkages between mathematics attainment of 130 inner-city high school students and their formative evaluation and between elementary NRTs and Scholastic Aptitude Test mathematics scores. (SLD)

Explores the use of ability grouping as a guideline for educational decision making. Ability grouping is often detrimental because it may foster segregation and poor teaching and lower students' self-esteem. Some studies demonstrate a slight positive effect on achievement. Higher ability students may derive more academic benefit from grouping.…

Evaluates the effectiveness of a course using a constructivist approach in reducing Dutch secondary school students (n=190) misconceptions about force. Concluded that the lessons were effective in changing students' ideas in regard to forces in rest situations and frictional forces and that learning effects were equally distributed over student…

Contends that tracking students by assumed ability level does not substantially benefit high achievers and that it tends to put low achievers at a serious disadvantage. Further asserts that tracking in primary and secondary schools stigmatizes and inhibits opportunities of success for disadvantaged and minority students. (24 citations) (VWC)

Numbers of At-risk students are rising in the public classrooms of our day. Standardized testing is a reality that is clearly defining the great chasm that stands between the performance of these children and what is expected of their age mates. Public junior and senior high schools face the quandary: How are At-risk students to be aided in their…

The past two decades have witnessed a significant growth in the number of school improvement programs and in the accompanying efforts to evaluate such programs. Passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2002 has intensified the need for evaluations to assess and understand the quality and value of educational interventions. Well over a…

We use quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the links between participation in adult learning and self-efficacy, particularly for the subgroup of adults who had low levels of achievement at school. We focus on self-efficacy because it translates into a range of wider benefits and because it may afford protection from depression and…

Despite small steps of progress, issues of legitimacy and worth are still barriers inhibiting systemic change in physical education. Even with the call for reform in physical education (Rink, 1993), few comprehensive school reform efforts have included physical education, for at least two reasons. First, physical education is not considered a core…

In this study we examined how good and weak students of literature interact with short literary stories. We focused on differences in the use of cognitive and affective reading activities, and in the extent to which good and weak students adapt their activities to (parts of) the story they are reading. 19 Dutch tenth-grade students from 8 classes…

"Everyday Mathematics," published by Wright Group/McGraw-Hill, is a core curriculum for students in kindergarten through grade 6 covering numeration and order, operations, functions and sequences, data and chance, algebra, geometry and spatial sense, measures and measurement, reference frames, and patterns. At each grade level, the…

Ten essays address aspects of second language instruction at the elementary school level: "Elementary School Foreign Languages: Perspectives, Practices, and Promises" (Carol Ann Pesola, Helena Anderson Curtain); "The Integrated Curriculum: Rethinking the Elementary School Foreign Language Program for the '90s" (Virginia…