Although ability partly explains why some students are eager to learn in school whereas others are disinterested, motivation is another significant factor. This newsletter discusses factors that affect students' motivation to learn, considers techniques that can increase motivation, and identifies schools that have developed activities to enhance…

This study was conducted to determine if there was a significant difference in the rate of success between initially matriculated and provisionally accepted students in the Master of Business Administration program at Dowling College (Oakdale, New York). Provisionally accepted students have met all admissions criteria except that they have scored…

To facilitate program replication, this document comprehensively describes the University Consortium's (UC) Child Development Associate (CDA) resource model for Head Start training in Texas. Additionally, the discussion serves as a guide to the total UC-CDA modeling process for all Head Start grantees and associated institutions. Seven chapters…

Questionnaires with over 400 items were administered to key teachers of the 1982 Search for Excellence in Science Education programs. It was hoped to compare the characteristics of teachers of exemplary programs with those possessed by teachers in general. Results are presented under the following headings: (1) qualifications of science teachers;…

A research project concerned with the development of English as a school subject in the Norwegian elementary and junior high school identifies and describes British and American influences on the theoretical climate of foreign language teaching in Western Europe from the 1950's to the 1970's. A distinct British influence, the so-called Palmer,…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether particular aspects of movement control influenced the performance of 2-year-old children on a standard developmental test, and thus influenced assessments of intellectual progress based on that test. Six cerebral-palsied (CP) children were compared with six children not suffering motor system…

The Austin Independent School District (AISD) adopted a new and more specific policy about elementary student retention in the 1981-82 school year. Students will be at least 1 year behind in their reading levels at grades 1 through 6 and/or 1 year behind in mathematics competencies at grades 4 through 6 to be considered for retention. Within the…

This report describes a 9-month project, conducted in seven states, during which teaching strategies and teacher attitudes which successfully encouraged girls in science were observed, described, and analyzed. Biology, taken by over 80 percent of high school students, was the course selected for observation; if girls are turned off to science in…

Although prescribed standards for science education are the basis for educational reform in virtually all states in the United States, these standards are often problematic. Indeed, an emphasis on prescribed standards often (1) frustrates and inhibits good teachers, (2) marginalizes many at-risk students, (3) produces curricula that ignore…

To assess the stability of the Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal score scale SAT--V, 1963 and 1973 forms of the SAT--V were administered in counterbalanced order to spaced samples of the same group. The 1973 scores were placed on the reporting scale used for the 1963 form. The experimentally derived scores on the 1963 scale were compared with their…

Discussions of any test must focus on reliability, content validity, and interpretation of results. In this critique of On Further Examination--the report of the Advisory Panel on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Score Decline--the National Education Association (NEA) finds no fault with the reliability of the SAT. Its content validity, however,…

Based upon an occupational rating instrument entitled the Occupational Analysis Inventory (OAI), this study sought to produce a more stable and interpretable set of OAI job analysis factors. The study was designed (1) to obtain OAI ratings on an additional 600 jobs and thus enlarge the sample to 1,414 jobs and (2) to derive a meaningful set of…

Questionnaires were sent to principals and teachers of second and sixth grade children who were part of an Educational Testing Service (ETS) study of compensatory reading programs; the data were combined and analyzed with the original ETS data to determine what effects instructional characteristics had on reading achievement. Within the…

Weak increases in classroom cohesion for three seventh-grade classes instructed by a mastery learning technique compared to three conventionally instructed classes are demonstrated using block analysis of variance, triadic census (balance theory), and block modelling (role theory) analytic techniques on repeated-measures sociometric rating data.…

As part of an ongoing study of sex differences in spatial ability, three preliminary hypotheses on parental socialization, sex role socialization, and biological explanations were tested, using 139 high school seniors as subjects. The early findings indicated that there was no support for the hypothesis that boys and girls differ in how they view…