This article examines family, friend, and media influences on competent and problem behaviors in a sample of 1,174 urban minority youth followed over 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Students completed annual surveys at their schools. Each of the contextual factors investigated was significantly associated with concurrent aggression and delinquency as…

When Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School in Boston realized that their students' 2002-2003 math scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System fell below the target set by Massachusetts for adequate yearly progress, they saw not one problem (poor math achievement), but two. Because it was the fifth year the school had not hit AYP…

The current study investigated how ethnicity and gender affect changes in the self-esteem of early adolescents during the middle school years. Self-report data were collected from more than 4,000 early adolescents from three ethnic groups: European American, African American, and Hispanic and analyzed using a consecutive three-year cross-sectional…

Objective: This study examines peer and parenting characteristics of 149 boys and girls with and without subclinical attention problems. Method: Multivariate analyses showed that children with attention problems had higher levels of negative peer nominations and conflict and betrayal in friendships, and their parents tended to use higher levels of…

In an era dominated by issues of school finance adequacy, it seems particularly important to provide evidence that, despite a number of claims to the contrary, educational resources are indeed positively related to improved student achievement. One of the hypotheses of this article is that expenditures per pupil must be disaggregated into more…

This study used conflict resolution role play vignettes and self-report surveys of 450 New York City 6th graders to examine associations between adolescents' conflict resolution efficacy and social skills. Vignettes covered 3 social contexts, conflict with a peer (disagreement over activities), with a parent (raise in allowance), and with a…

This study contributes to the field by identifying a broad range of traditional and newer middle grade policies and practices, and determining in California which of these differentiate higher- from lower-performing schools serving similar student populations, with performance measured by the state's standards-based tests. Based on a sample of 303…

In the 2008-09 school year researchers from EdSource and Stanford University conducted a large-scale study of 303 middle grades schools in California. The team surveyed 303 principals, 3,752 English Language Arts (ELA) and math teachers in grades 6-8, and 157 superintendents of the districts and charter management organizations that oversee the…

This thesis investigated the attitudes toward reading of elementary students in 3rd and 6th grade at a small, rural western Kansas school before and after implementing a read-aloud program. The sample consisted of 58 students--33 boys and 25 girls, including both the study group (n=30) and control group (n=28). Independent variables were…

This paper reports on five related studies on upper elementary school students' beliefs about the role of real-world knowledge in solving mathematical word problems, and on possibilities of overcoming their unrealistic mathematical modeling. Findings from the first study of 75 Belgian fifth-grade students showed that as a consequence of current…

Parental involvement is critical to a child's success in school. This handbook provides parents with information about the Grade 6 curriculum in Alberta, Canada. Based on the Alberta Education "Program of Studies: Elementary Schools," the handbook describes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes students in Alberta are expected to…

Why do some adolescents cheat and others do not? To answer this question, the relationship between motivational factors and self-reported cheating beliefs and behaviors was examined in a sample of early adolescents. It was hypothesized that cheating and beliefs in the acceptability of cheating would be more likely to occur when students perceived…

A study investigated attitudes and preferences concerning reading among fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in Portuguese-language schools in the United States. Extrinsic factors influencing students (parents, teachers) were also analyzed. The research took place in 10 schools in 5 states. Data were obtained using questionnaires (students)…

The Education Resources Center (ERC) is a community-based organization that serves students from various elementary schools united by the Phoenix Coalition for Youth and Families (PCYF). The PCYF Project was authorized to organize agencies and schools in the lower socio-economic areas of inner-city Phoenix into one collaborative arrangement. This…

This unit is one of a series that represents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. By studying a crucial turning point in history students become aware that choices had to be made by real human beings, that those decisions were the result of specific factors, and that they set in motion a series…