A survey was conducted with 166 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education and developmental reading classes to determine student background knowledge in three major areas: study and coping skills; current events, geography, and history; and general vocabulary. Among the findings were the following: (1) Students in both groups spent more…

Differences between reporting and classificatory functions in writing were examined in the responses of grade 10 and grade 12 students: 60 who were successful English students, and 60 on the borderline of passing in each of the grades. The reporting tasks required students to write compositions describing their first day in a high school or some…

Although the two countries differ vastly in wealth and resources, Cuba was selected as the second subject in this comparative study of the American effective schools movement and a socialist educational system because of: (1) the successes of the Cuban literacy campaign; and (2) similarities between the racial composition of the two countries. In…

As part of a program in which father-adolescent interactions are videotaped in a search for the determinants of achieving behavior, a sample of 37 father-adolescent pairs were studied as the two worked together while the blindfolded adolescent built a tower of irregularly shaped blocks. Discriminant function treatment of coded analysis of verbal…

To analyze and compare specific oral communication behaviors of primary school pupils who score high on reading and language tests with those who score low, a study was conducted on approximatley 200 students who were classified as (1) high language, (2) high reading, (3) low language, or (4) low reading according to their scores on the…

The continuing perceived complexity of educational systems and the current status of organizational and administrative theory suggest a renewed theory-building effort in the field of educational administration. It is in this sense that this paper presents a heuristic paradigm for the study of educational administration in the Americas, a…

Withdrawing, continuing, and nonreturning undergraduates at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) were compared. Nonreturning students were nongraduating students who completed course requirements but did not return the following semester (25 spring nonreturning students and 47 fall nonreturning students). Data were also collected…

The managerial roles of the university president and the corporation president were compared, and attention was directed to the skills needed by both types of executives and their relationships with their boards. The activities of the chief executive officers of five middle-to-large-sized American organizations were observed for a week. These…

To determine if purposes in reading differ with sex, grade level, and nationality, a 16-item "Functions of Reading Scale" (developed from content analysis of student essays on why they like to read) was administered to 459 Irish (Dublin, Ireland) and American (Windham, Connecticut) students in grades three, five, and eight. Data…

Sex differences in faculty members' use of and evaluation of sabbaticals and leaves taken at a large research university were examined. Attention was directed to sex differences in two faculty programs: a competitive leave program, established in 1954, which awards faculty a leave for one quarter at full pay; and a noncompetitive sabbatical…

Distribution of primary school enrollments within and among 15 countries of the Eastern African region was examined by drawing exclusively on routine annual statistics and by emphasizing simple computer-generated indicators. In its first phase, the study made inter-country comparisons that indicated which countries and which areas in the region…

To determine whether social forces have changed the attitudes of rural women or whether the cohesiveness of the rural family unit produces such strong attitudinal transference that attitudes do not change, researchers studied the attitudes of three generations of women in Dawes County, Nebraska. The study was distinctive because it covered more…

ESEA Title I, now Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981, was designed to provide financial assistance to local education agencies to meet the special needs of educationally deprived children, with funds used to provide supplemental instructional support service. Starting with the 1979-80 school year, each state…

A practicum comparing the baccalaureate degrees and credit hour requirements for degrees offered by institutions accredited by the American Association of Bible Colleges (AABC) to identify appropriate norms at colleges like Practical Bible Training School (PBTS) is presented. A questionnaire was sent to chief academic officers at the 96 AABC…

In a multicultural study involving three ethnic groups, an attempt was made to evaluate features of an infant's developmental niche in the context of immigration. Four dimensions are reported: (1) parental beliefs about child development; (2) aspects of the baby's physical and social environment, including number of caretakers, crowding of the…